


Strings & Bows

by daphnerunning, Galiko



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Pre-Canon, mentions of noncon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-30
Updated: 2016-07-30
Packaged: 2018-07-27 14:57:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 39,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7623124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daphnerunning/pseuds/daphnerunning, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Galiko/pseuds/Galiko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If Hasumi Keito is going to apply to Yumenosaki Academy, he's going to need a club to join. Fortunately, enigmatic, sleepy third-year Sakuma Rei is willing to teach him the shamisen. But learning goes both ways...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strings & Bows

Any good school looks at extracurriculars. They look at academics, clubs, athletics (kill him), and musical talent. Hasumi Keito has perfect grades, is the captain of archery club, and...

And nothing. 

Music has always eluded him, something that his guidance counselor has been quick to point out, going into his second year. _“What school do you want to go to, Hasumi-kun?”_ she’d asked, and been incredibly unimpressed with his hemming and hawing as he’d struggled not to say, _Whatever school Tenshouin Eichi chooses._

But Eichi has been looking at more and more music-based schools these days, and could go back to looking at something academically superior at any moment. Money like the Tenshouins have opens many doors, even for students with poor attendance. All Keito can do is be prepared.

To be prepared, he has to cover all his bases. School, check. Archery, check. Student council, check. Club and music? Time to learn something. So after school, he presents himself at the door of the Orchestral Ensemble club, his father’s old shamisen in hand. “Excuse me...is the captain here? I want to join.”

Hunched over the piano is third-year middle schooler Sakuma Rei, and the frown that Hasumi Keito is presented with says a lot about this particular third year’s mood. 

“…I guess that’s me, because no one ever shows up.” Rei doesn’t get up from the piano bench, comfortably huddled within an old, patchy microfiber blanket as he is. The shades are all closed in the music room, and the only light he currently has flipped on is an old lap, stuffed into a corner. “It’s not much of a club,” he offers up wearily, glancing down to pick at his chipped black nail polish. “But if you want a place to practice, it’s all right. What’s your name?”

Keito bows formally, one hand on his thigh, the other still gripping the handle of his shamisen. “Hasumi Keito. I appreciate your attention.” He straightens up and looks around, blinking owlishly behind his glasses in the darkness. “Are you saying I can show up and practice and get club credit without being part of any actual performances or human interaction?”

“Yeah. Pretty sweet, huh?”

Keito breathes out a sigh of relief, and takes one of the empty seats, leaning down and pulling out his shamisen. “Good. I have no idea how to play this fucking thing, but a couple of years in the club should take care of that requirement just fine.”

“…Wait, you’re joining the club and you don’t know how to even play anything?” It’s not scorn in Rei’s voice, but surprise that makes him perk up, just a little, and scoot to the edge of the piano bench to peer over at Keito curiously through his overgrown bangs. Nerdy and noodle-y and with a surprising foul mouth—huh. This guy doesn’t seem _too_  bad. “I can probably teach you. I can play basically everything with strings. Uh, Sakuma Rei, by the way, that’s my name.”

Keito’s eyebrows raise behind the rims of his glasses, and he gratefully hands over the shamisen. “Nice to meet you, Captain. This is the only instrument I have access to. I think it’s old, sorry if it’s awful. If you can teach me to do a few scales and one performance piece, I’d be very grateful.Apparently, I might be applying to an idol school, of all things.”

Rei takes the shamisen from him gingerly, trying not to look too skeptical. “You might be applying to an idol school, and you…don’t know how to play anything. You’re a second year, aren’t you?”

“Mm, yes. It should be fine.” Keito pushes up his glasses. “But I have perfect grades, and I’m the captain of the archery club, and I’m on student council. Also, I’ve been informed that I’m not terrible to look at, so I have that part taken care of, as far as being an idol goes.”

The skeptical stare continues for a moment before Rei shrugs, his attention turning to the shamisen. “Well, good luck, Wanna-be-Idol-san. Perfect grades don’t mean a damned thing if you can’t sing or at least fake your way through dancing.” He plucks a few of the shamisen’s strings, and gently turns the ichi-no-ito’s knob to set it to an entirely different note. “I also don’t know what idol group you think you’re gonna get in playing the shamisen, but…”

“It’s literally the only instrument I could get my hands on,” Keito says dryly. “My parents...I can’t ask them to get me a musical instrument. But I figure if I show up to the school and show that I’m at least trainable with a passable ear, that could be a benefit.” His head cocks to the side, watching Rei play with the old thing. “Is it terrible? I doubt it’s been tuned for decades, it’s been in my family for so long they all forgot about it.”

“Mm, no. It’s good. It’s old, but that’s not a bad thing with instruments if they’ve been stored properly…and you’re lucky, this one has.” Rei tunes the other strings to the first one, and plucks out the melody of _Sakura, Sakura_  in short order to make sure the creature still _can_  sing properly. “Maybe you can come up with some kinda traditional Japanese-pop combi kinda thing,” he says with a snort of laughter, passing the shamisen back over. “Hold on, I’ve got a book on traditional instruments somewhere. Between that and what I already know, you’ll be good to go, probably.” 

Keito’s eyes narrow. “You’re far too helpful. Not that I’m not grateful, but don’t you have your own practice to do? You seem like one of those sorts with scholarships to every major music school lined up. I wouldn’t want to interfere.”

“Yeah. I already have an invitation to Yumenosaki Academy, and I didn’t even have to apply.” Rei hikes his blanket up further onto his shoulders, thumbing his way through a bookshelf until he finds what he’s looking for amongst dozens of other old, yellowed books. “Since I don’t have to spend any time working on audition stuff for ‘real’ music schools, as my mom calls them, I’ve got some time to help you out.” 

Keito gives him a smile, one that Rei doesn’t know is as rare as it is. Then again, it’s rare that anyone is actually helpful or useful to him, rather than a source of annoyance. “Are you...well, Captain? Not ill?”

“Hmm?” Rei blinks at the question, glancing over his shoulder back at Keito. “That’s kinda weird to ask someone out of the blue, you know,” he says, tugging the book off the shelf and then plopping back down onto his piano bench. “ _Real_  idols like being as pale as I am.”

“It’s more about the fact that you’re wearing a blanket, as if it’s clothing. I’ve never seen someone do that who wasn’t ill.” Sakuma Rei is certainly something of an oddity and an enigma. It’s a surprise, then, that talking to him seems like such a relief.

“Ahhh. It’s because I’m always ready to nap,” Rei tells him matter-of-factly, dragging a chair over next to him. “Here, sit. I’ll teach you some basics, and show you how to practice. Just understand there’s a learning curve with any instrument, all right? I’m so used to stupid little first years giving up immediately…” 

“I’ve learned archery with the arm strength of an eight-year-old girl,” Keito says frankly. “I understand the concept of perseverance in the face of abject failure. I sing, so you don’t need to explain how to read music.”

Rei stares at him, and wonders if he should stop having such low standards—but this is _great_. “You and I are going to have fun,” he says, genuinely delighted, and plucks up the shamisen again. “Let’s _do_  this.”

Losing track of time is something that Sakuma Rei does often, but it doesn’t typically happen with _other_  people. 

Hours later, it isn’t until after the lamp in the corner suddenly shuts off that Rei blinks, eyes refocusing and dilating instantly in the entirely dark room. “Whoops,” he says, stretching his arms over his head as he shoves himself up to his feet. “Guess they cut the power on us. Ahhh, and I didn’t even get any of my own practicing done, and I’m gonna be late for my band…” His lament is pretty half-hearted, considering he just meanders over to the bookshelf to pull out a few more books of music. “I’m gonna give you some stuff to take home and play around with, if you want. I’m in here every day…most of the day…so you can come in whenever.”

“Thank you.” Keito accepts everything with another bow, wincing when that makes his back twinge in sudden cramps. “Ah...not as bad as sitting in seiza for hours, at least.”

He adjusts his glasses again, hovering around the bookshelf. “Do you...want me to walk you to your next meeting? It’s late, after all.” That’s probably better than saying out loud that Rei seems like a rather delicate sort that needs to be accompanied.

“Oh, no, definitely not,” Rei dismisses with a wave of a hand, and promptly shoves a stack of music into Keito’s hold. “The guys I’m about to go meet would eat you alive, and I’m not all about that. Ah, fuck, I don’t have time to swing home to drop Carlotta off.” He pauses, eyeing Keito. “Where do you live? You smell like temple incense.”

Keito blinks, then discreetly tries to sniff his own clothing. “Ikegami Shimabamon-ji,” he says, startled into the truth. “My family has taken care of the temple for hundreds of years.” _About as long as that violin you hold has been around_ , he almost says--but wait, that’s good in violins, isn’t it?

Rei packs up his violin, and then unceremoniously, thrusts it into Keito’s hold. “Good. Hold onto her for tonight, then, will you? She’ll have a much nicer evening at a Buddhist temple than with a bunch of asshats. If anything happens to her, though,” he says, smiling with the tiniest hint of sharp, sharp canine teeth poking out, “I’ll kill you.” 

Keito’s arm sags under the sudden 2kg weight, and he grunts, hefting the violin up in one hand, his shamisen case in the other, books juggled between the two. “I don’t suppose you want to strap something to my back as well? I’m already doing duty as a pack mule, apparently.”

“…Why are you like that?” Rei asks, tilting his head at Keito with honest curiosity. “Did your muscles atrophy for some reason? I mean, you smell pretty healthy, but…”

Keito huffs. “Just because I’m not a jock or a musclehead like _some_ people,” he mutters, hefting up his bag as much as possible. “I’m more of an...indoor type.”

“I mean, me, too,” Rei says without batting an eye. “I hate the sun. But being strong kinda comes with the territory. Ah, whatever, you’ve got this,” he says, clapping Keito on the back as he leads the way out of the room and opens the door for him. “Remember—take care of Carlotta, or die.”

“Yes, yes, I heard you the first time,” Keito says, less concerned with the threat and more concerned with holding two instruments as well as books and his own bag. “You know where I live, come and kill me if you like. I’ll bring it back to club tomorrow, if you’re...awake.” _Alive, you’re paler than I am._

Rei is there, and typically pale and wan and smiling the next day, and no more worse for wear.

It isn’t until after a pair of weeks that his mood seems to falter with the weather. The early spring sun is out full force, and he barely arrives to the club room on time, keys in one hand, parasol in the other even though they are indoors, violin sullenly strapped to his back, and his fingers shake as he fumbles to unlock the door that Keito waits outside of. “Sorry,” he mutters gloomily. “I’m dying today. Practice all you want, I’m probably just going to sleep.”

“You’re finally dying, hm?” Keito breezes past Rei to the practice section, pulling his shamisen off the shelf and sitting down. “I’ll start planning the funeral. Sorry...” He flushes, adjusting his glasses, then opens the case. “Sorry. I forget that kind of thing isn’t funny to people who don’t grow up in temples that officiate funerals. _Are_ you all right?”

Rei opens up a closet, and pulls out a number of pillows and blankets far above what a normal club room should ever have. “Morbid. Is that how you talk to your customers, or just your friends that are dying?” 

“...Friend. Usually.” Keito eyes Rei’s odd behavior for a moment, sore fingers running through clumsy fingering on the scales he’s been practicing. “My closest friend. He isn’t well. By now, it’s become almost a joke between us, it’s been almost ten years since the first time they called my family to prepare his funeral.”

“Ah. Sorry to hear that. Does he go to this school?” At least talking to Keito distracts Rei from how miserable he feels, and when coupled with the task of building a makeshift pillow fort/wanna-be coffin, today seems almost tolerable. “Probably not, I’m guessing, if you aren’t in a club with him instead.” 

“No. He’s at Gyosei International. I got in as well, but my parents couldn’t afford the tuition.” Keito says it without a hint of shame, fingers plucking gently at the strings. “He hasn’t entirely decided what high school to go to, but he’s seriously considering Yumenosaki. So, the shamisen it is for me.”

It’s really lame that his first thought is ‘ _that’s so romantic’,_ isn’t it? Normal teenagers don’t probably have those kinds of thought processes, but Rei knows he’s a few steps beyond normal. “It’s settled, then,” Rei sighs, flopping down into the pile of pillows that now vaguely resembles…well, it’s certainly a pile of pillows. “Guess you’ve gotta join the ranks of Yumenosaki. I know all about their audition process, I’ll make sure you get in.” He shrugs, glancing over to Keito. “I usually think it’s pretty gross when guys try to learn instruments to get a date, but you didn’t come to me saying that outright, so you can be the exception.”

At that, Keito flushes deeply, bending his head over his shamisen as his fingers stumble. He grimaces, and mutters, “It’s not...that simple. I won’t ever get one., for one thing.”

“I dunno. You’re trying pretty hard. And you’re the tallest in your year, that’s gotta be good for something.” For him, it mostly makes him hit his head on shit he never did before. 

“It’s very good for not fitting into any of my clothing anymore,” Keito says dryly. “At least you make it look good.” Dammit, dammit, that’s gay. Normally it would be fine, but after he’d just basically admitted to having feelings for a man? “That shouldn’t make you feel uncomfortable, I apologize if it did.”

“It doesn’t.” Rei piles a few blankets around himself as he rolls onto his stomach, dragging a few of the thicker ones partially over his head so that only his eyes, sort of glowing in the dim light, peer out. “Same thing happened to me in my first year, and I don’t think there was anything good about that. Mostly, it makes people think I’m in my twenties or something, and that gets real weird, weird fast. I turn fifteen in _November._ ”

Rei seems willing to ignore his obvious homosexuality, which is a relief, and Keito feels content to do the same. He shakes out his fingers, giving the throbbing tips a rest. “How fast do callouses form? My fingers feel like I’m pressing on the bone every damn time I touch the strings. And you wouldn’t feel so terrible if you slept at night and were awake in the day, you know,” he adds, unable to stop meddling.

“The more you practice, the faster they form.” Rei wallows down, clearly pleased that his protege has, quite literally, worked himself to the bone. “Don’t hurt yourself, just take little breaks. Also, don’t tell me what to do, I don’t have a choice. I’m a vampire.” 

“A vampire. Right.”

“Mmhm.” Rei stifles a yawn (poorly). “A vampire. I’m nocturnal. Sunny days like this are the worst.” 

“A vampire like...?” Keito sets down the shamisen, strumming his fingers in chords without the instrument instead, focusing on his books. “From which mythology? There are so many kinds.” Rei is so funny sometimes.

“And most of them are wrong,” Rei says with a long sigh, stretching his arms out in front of him as he faceplants. “It isn’t like Japan has any _real_  vampire legends. I guess my mom is a lot like a penanggalan or a langsuir, but she spent so many years in Europe that she forgot how to do a lot of that kind of fancy bullshit. And she turned my dad _after_  she got knocked up, so his genetics don’t count.” He tilts his head, still just his eyes staring over at Keito. “I guess my brother and I are just lucky that we’re both from good stock, or we wouldn’t be able to go out in the sun at all. That would suck.” 

Keito’s hand slowly goes still. He holds Rei’s dark red gaze, waits a heartbeat for the laugh, waits another heartbeat, and thinks. “I’m...not entirely certain I believe you,” he says carefully. “But if that’s true, then you, what, drink blood? From humans?”

“I mean, I drink human blood…but I’ve never… _from_  a human. Our mom’s fucking neurotic about it, says we’re too young to go do that yet, which I think is bullshit. Do you know how gross old, bagged blood tastes? I’d rather starve, or just drink tomato juice all day…” 

Keito’s eyes narrow. “I can’t believe we’re talking about this like it’s normal, but...hmm. I suppose it’s been oxidized, like apples that have turned brown. Why tomato juice, though? Is it just the color? I find the stuff repulsive myself.”

“I dunno, I just really like tomatoes. Roasted ones, marinara sauce, pizza, tomato juice…” Rei trails off with a groan, and slithers further down into his blanket fort. “I’m so huuungry, the sun makes me want to die. I can’t even practice, this is the worst.” 

“Are you this nonfunctional every summer?” Keito looks around the room, then sighs, picking up the long pole that teachers use to yank down high shades, pulling them into place. Then his arm sags. “Ugh, holding those up like that--they’re heavier than they look. That better make you feel better.”

“I’m worse in the summer. But Keito-kuuuun, you’re so nice to me,” comes Rei’s muffled praise. “That childhood friend of yours better be sweet to you, especially after you’re learning the _shamisen_ for him.”

“Oh, he’s never sweet. He’s the worst.” Even with those words, there’s a fond little smile on Keito’s face.

“The worst in the best of ways, apparently,” Rei sing-songs, slowly poking his head out from underneath the blankets now that he’s convinced the worst of the sun isn’t coming through. “I have to admit, I’m a little jealous. Must be nice, being doted on by a good boy like you.”

Keito looks over sharply, searching Rei’s face for open mockery, and finding only gentle teasing. Well. That’s probably all right, then. “You’re a very handsome man,” he says bluntly. “I know full well you have no shortage of admirers. I...” 

He struggles with the words for a moment, then tries, “I’m not inept at recognizing other men like myself. And most of the ones at this school are wasting away over you.”

“Huh? No way,” Rei dismisses with a laugh. “At least 95% of the guys at this school are…well, they’re a fucking waste of time, is what they are.” Eventually, maybe they’ll stop playing gay chicken and say the words. _Maybe._

“Of course they are. Most of them haven’t matured far enough to be properly attractive yet.” Keito adjusts his glasses--he’s got to get them tightened--and sits back in his chair. “Being a heterosexual woman must be hell. So many of the men our age are just unacceptable. Awkward, unattractive--the odor alone--!”

“Ugh, right? If _humans_  can notice it, try being a vampire and suffering through the way their blood smells,” Rei grumbles, plopping his head down into his arms, and slowly letting his legs kick behind him. “No one in my year is even remotely cute. And the girls—I don’t even know what to _do_  about them. They want to talk to me and I’m pretty sure I do a good impression of a fucking chihuahua at this point, emphasis on the shaking.” 

“Half of the reason I want to go to Yumenosaki is that the idol course is all-male,” Keito says bluntly. “I just don’t understand women very well. And since I don’t want to fuck them, there’s no reason for me to try to get better at it. There’s no possible reward in it for me.”

“ _Right?_  Fuck, I never thought I’d find someone _sensible_  here, how did we miss each other for a year?” Rei struggles to push himself upright, caught up in pillows and blankets as he is, and manages even if he’s still firmly cocooned. “I mean, I understand the _concept_  of appealing sexually to girls, but only in a marketability sense. My mom tells me all the time that I’m too fucking clinical about it, but I don’t care what she thinks and she got hitched to a guy even though I’m pretty sure she’s a big lesbian, so it’s her fault I’m a big homo. Even vampires have genetic links like that.” 

“...Sure,” Keito says, one eyebrow raised. Rei takes this vampire stuff _very_ seriously, apparently. Well, hell, who is he to judge? Maybe Rei _is_ one. At least he seems to be harmless enough. Most likely, he’s just a harmless weirdo, and Buddha knows full well that Keito has seen enough of that around Eichi. Nothing fazes him anymore, at the ripe old age of fourteen. “So. If you’re so uninterested in all the unwashed cretins at our school, does that mean that you and someone in your band...?”

Rei immediately makes a face. “Ugh, no. They’re all fucking straight, even if I was interested. _They_  need to take a bath, too, all of them. They’re all in high school, all obsessed with girls, and it’s a miracle any of them can hold a guitar, let alone play it.”

“Why on earth do you hang out with them?” It’s something Keito has wondered for a while. Rei seems far better than everyone he associates with, stronger and cooler and hotter and more attractive. “Is it just that there’s no one on your level anywhere?”

“I hang out with you,” Rei simply says, and then exhales, his feet slowly kicking again. “Why do I hang out with them…well, it pisses my mom off that I spend my nights performing outside of stations instead of…who even knows what. But more than that…a couple of them have connections. Like, in the entertainment industry, you know? If I keep being cool with them and writing their music and shit, I figure they’ll introduce me. Worth a shot, anyway.”

That makes Keito raise his eyebrows. Silently, he pulls out a math book, starting on his homework without really focusing, taking some ease in the fact that he’s getting something done. “You want to make music a career, then. You’re very talented. I don’t know anything about the music industry, though, so don’t expect any advice.”

“It’s all right, that’s what I figure going to Yumenosaki’ll help with.” Rei doesn’t bother stifling a yawn this time, and his head thumps back down onto the pillows afterwards. “I know I’m good enough—now I just gotta be _marketable._ Being sociable isn’t my strong point either, but I’m working on it.” He watches at Keito from underneath his hair for a moment before absently asking, “You’re type A, right? You smell good.” 

Keito blinks, and slowly brings a hand up to brush over the artery at his neck. Well. If Rei can smell that, there isn’t much more question, is there? “I thought you didn’t drink from humans. Isn’t that what you said?”

“I don’t. But that doesn’t mean they don’t smell good sometimes.”

For whatever reason, that makes Keito’s face warm, and he looks down at his math book. “You shouldn’t say things like that to men like me.”

“What, you mean good boys that do their math homework in the music club room when they should be practicing shamisen to impress their crush?” Rei teases, rolling onto his back. “Nerd.” 

“I mean boys that--that like boys! You’re going to give someone the wrong idea, Rei.” Keito pushes up his glasses, feeling them start to slip down his ears as he starts to sweat. “I’ll be up front about this. I find you very attractive, so please do me the favor of not flirting too much.”

“Heh. Sorry.” He’s not sorry, not really. “You’re cute, but I’ll back off. I already told you I was jealous that you liked someone else.”

“But you were joking.” Keito is very certain about that part. “You’re far too attractive for me, obviously. I’m used to that.”

Rei leans his head back, blinking upside-down at Keito. “I’m a fucking weirdo noodle. You’re a cute nerd. You can chill right out. What’s that childhood friend been telling you, and should I punch him for it?” 

“He tells me that I’m lucky I don’t like women, because I could never get one.” Keito smiles. “It’s funny. You can laugh.”

“That’s not funny, that’s mean. I bet a lot of girls think you’re hot.”

“He’s right, it doesn’t matter to me. I don’t mind thinking he’s funny when he’s being mean. _He_ thinks he’s being funny. That...that’s what matters to him, but that’s what matters to me, too.” Keito scratches a few numbers onto his graph paper, knowing without checking that they’re correct. “Eichi likes me, in his own way.”

Rei’s eyebrows raise, skepticism written across his face. “Sounds like he likes having someone nice to kick around, more like,” he mutters, and then, louder, he adds, “So when’re you gonna ask him out?” 

“Ask him...oh. No, no, no, no.” Keito laughs, a little nervous, staring down at his math homework. “No, no, I’m not going to do that. He’s...not that kind of person. I probably won’t do that. No, I won’t ask him out, that’s, that’s not...no.”

“I didn’t know masochists to this degree existed in real life.” 

“Eh? Masochist?” Keito’s pen pauses. “I mean, I should let you know, I absolutely already have confessed to him.”

“And?” Rei persists. “What did he say?” 

“He said he was glad his image training was paying off, and that if I was in love, it was only a small step until the rest of the world was as well.” Keito sighs. “He’s very charming.”

“Keito, he sounds like an arrogant asswipe.”

“Yes.” Keito closes the math book, giving it up as a lost cause. “I never said he was a good person. I just...it doesn’t seem to matter to my heart, so I figure I’ll just keep on as I am.”

“Maybe if you play him the shamisen enough, he’ll sweeten up.” Doubtful, judging by how genuinely _bad_  Keito’s ‘friend’ sounds. To each their own, Rei supposes, but…gross. He holds his hands up in defeat. “If you’re gonna be like that, then oh well. Guess I have to keep being obnoxious and keep telling you that your blood smells good.” 

“You don’t _have_ to.” Keito crosses his legs, letting his book rest against the chair’s leg. “But if you keep going, I’ll probably start to offer you a taste, Captain.”

“Didn’t anyone teach you never to give vampires an invitation? I figured they’d at least teach a devout Buddhist that about ghosts…” 

“They teach me not to talk to mysterious strangers at road crossings and in forests at night, which I think is common sense in any situation, really.” Keito sits back, looking Rei up and down, and finally offers, “You don’t have to beat around the bush. I--I mean, I will date you. If you...don’t mind. Just until you find someone--I mean, until you graduate, it could be...easy.”

“…You’re…you’re really blunt, you know that?” Rei manages with a startled laugh, his face coloring in spite of himself. Huh. How to even reply to this. Keito has some _balls_. “I…don’t really like the idea of you being a stepping stone. That’d be shitty of me.” 

Keito’s first instinct is to mutter _forget it, I didn’t mean it, please ignore me_ , but the way Rei’s cheeks are flushing...well, he hasn’t gotten this far by giving up at the first opportunity. Instead, he stands, crossing to kneel in front of Rei’s blanket cocoon, neatly in seiza. “If you were joking and you really don’t find me attractive, by all means, just tell me. I won’t offer again.”

“Okay.” 

Ah. No. Too neutral of a response. Shit, shit, back up, time to fix that. “I mean—yeah, okay. We…we can date.” Shit, he is being asked out by a guy that can sit in seiza like that, that’s pretty sweet. “I really do think you’re cute,” Rei adds hastily. “Sorry—I’m, heh, I’ve never had anyone ask me out before? Are you sure? I know you _say_  you’re not gonna ask out your mean friend, but…”

Keito ducks his head, letting his hair fall in his face, startled despite his boldness. This is overwhelming, and his blood pounds, almost enough to make him faint--no, no, not yet! This is important!--and he reaches forward, letting his fingers brush against Rei’s collarbone with a little inhale. “I’d like...I’d like to. To date you, I think. Ah, what’s the worst that can happen?”

“The school thinks the kids of the Orchestral Ensemble Club are weirder than they already are?” Rei suggest with a thready laugh, swallowing too hard, too fast when Keito touches him. _Yep, I’m gay!_  his mind cheerfully screams at him. “But in all seriousness, yeah. I’m game.” 

Keito tries to hide the way his face lights up, but with little success, as the smile struggles to rise out of him. Before Rei can pull away, Keito leans forward, pressing a little kiss to the side of his cheek. The skin there is cool and pale, almost like something inhuman ( _stop buying into his delusions, Hasumi Keito!_ ), and he pulls back, hair falling into his face. “There. Now it’s for certain.”

“…I’m getting fucking schooled by a second year,” Rei mumbles, shoving his burning face down into his pile of pillows all over again. “How many boyfriends have you _had_ , huh? You _and_  Ritsu, precocious fucks, bet you had a boyfriend when you were seven, just like he did…”

“Hm? Oh. No. I’ve never had a boyfriend.” Keito pushes his glasses up, light glinting off of them, and he tries not to be smug as he offers, “But that doesn’t mean I’m a virgin, either. Don’t worry, I’ll take it easy on you, Sempai.”

“Holy shit, are you serious. I’m going to kick you out of my club.”

“Do I look like I’m not serious?” Keito stands gracefully from seiza in a fluid motion, and offers a hand down. “You look a little flustered. Don’t worry, I’m not going to take it too fast.”

“With _who?_ ” Rei can’t help but ask, taking Keito’s hand after a moment’s consideration and a huff. “And how old were you? This is ridiculous, you’re _younger_  than me.” 

Keito pulls Rei to his feet, boosted by the fact that Rei seriously needs to eat more, and says with a little tilt up of his chin, “Eichi’s butler. A few months ago. Mm, I went over to fetch something from Eichi’s room while he was in the hospital, and I ran into him while he was cleaning. I told him I was a tutor coming down for Eichi from high school, and...” He shrugs. “I’m convincing when I need to be.”

Rei shakes his head in disbelief. “You’ve got some balls,” he bluntly says, swaying a little on his feet, and trying not to collapse longingly back into his blanket pile. “Man, you and my little brother. Even _he_  is getting laid, and I have to hear about it all the time. Fucking immoral if you ask me, his boyfriend could’ve at least asked me for his hand in marriage first.” 

“You? Not your parents? Who is the real adult in your family? I should know these things, now that you’re my boyfriend.”

“I mean, Ritsu’s my responsibility, pretty sure. He’s too cute not to be, that’s how this works. My mom…” Rei shudders. “You don’t need to meet her, she’d get weird about it.” 

“Right, that’s the centuries-old lesbian. Ah...perhaps not, on that front. You don’t need to meet my parents, either.” Keito folds his arms over his chest. “So, do you want to go somewhere and have sex? I assume that’s half of why you agreed to date me.”

“…You’ve _got_  to stop being so blunt or I’m gonna die,” Rei manages, planting both hands onto Keito’s shoulders. Ah, it’s nice being _eye level_  with someone his own age for once. “That’s not why I agreed to date you. I, uh. Wasn’t thinking about sex at all, actually? _You_  brought up being a virgin, or rather, not being one. Shit, it’s true, nerds are the ones that have more sex than anyone…” 

“Oh.” That hadn’t occurred to Keito, and he stops short, leaning into the touch on his shoulders. “In that case...I’ll be in your care? Sorry, I don’t actually know a damn thing. All I’ve ever heard is that all men care about is sex, I don’t mind being useful.”

“I mean, I’m not gonna say _no_  if you want to have sex,” Rei quickly replies, giving Keito’s shoulders a squeeze. “But it’s not like I know anything about dating or sex, either. All I know about is music. I suck, basically, and you willingly signed _up_  for this.” 

“Yes. Well.” Keito brings his own hands awkwardly up to rest on Rei’s shoulders as well, but that seems too weird, so he lets them slip to his waist, which seems much weirder, so he lets them fall to his sides. “You’re signing on for a lot of sucking too, you see.”

“I can’t even tell if you’re making a sex joke or a vampire joke or if it’s both at once.” 

“You can pretend whichever one you like was intentional, I mostly just wanted you to know that I’m not good at conversations or people or any of it.” Keito furrows his brown, thinking. “This might be very bad, actually.”

“Nah, it’s gonna be _great_ ,” Rei cheerfully says, grabbing Keito by the wrist and promptly hauling him into the blanket-pillow pile as he decides right then that standing is too much work. “All you’ve got to be prepared for is practicing even _more._  I’m not having a boyfriend that sucks at music, I’ve sworn that since I was in preschool.” 

Keito is sure he’s too stiff, not good at snuggling or cuddling, and not pleasant for someone who clearly knows how to do this to spoon up with...but the act is sort of nice anyway, and he makes a concerted effort to relax. “Is the shamisen enough? Or do I need to learn something cooler?”

“Mnn, nope, shamisen’s good.” Not unexpected are Keito’s elbows and knees, kinda bony as hell, but the rest of him is surprisingly soft and warm, and Rei can thoroughly appreciate this. “It suits you,” he says, trying not to yawn directly into Keito’s hair and failing when Rei gets all four limbs around him after cocooning back into his blanket prison. “Later, when I’m not gonna go to sleep on you, remind me to bring in the hosozao shamisen I found at our house the other day…Mom says it was used in brothels, but she thinks everything was used in brothels.”

“That’s fascinating, but did you say you’re planning on going to sleep on me?” Keito asks, voice faltering. For some reason, this feels far more intimate than a tryst with Eichi’s dashing butler, and far more inclined to make him feel nervous. “I have to leave in an hour, my parents expect me home to clean up after the evening services. There’s _so_ much incense to change.”

“Keito. Shhh.” Rei plants a hand over his mouth. “Just tell them you practiced for longer, can’t be helped, really strict music teacher. Here, see, I’m teaching you how to be a bad kid.” 

“But--” It’s easier to talk with a hand over his mouth than Keito had thought, mostly because Rei’s hands are made up of 90% long fingers. Twisting his head also does wonders. “They don’t _care_ why I’m late, I’ll still have to stand outside holding buckets of water and reciting prayers, and my arms already hurt! Oi, Rei, release me!”

“Maybe your arms will get stronger faster,” Rei yawns, and promptly locks his own around Keito, his face going into Keito’s neck. “It’s time to walk on the edge and nap with me.”

“Dating you is already the worst. I’ve made an awful mistake.”

“Yeah, I told you I sucked. Now it’s just a matter of time to find out _exactly_  how much.”

~

“Hehhh, Onii-chan has a boyfriend? What’s his name, is he hot like Maa-kun? Wooow, I can’t believe you haven’t even done it yet, you must really suck at it.”

_“You have a boyfriend? When do I get to meet him?_ This _is why you should’ve been born a girl, or at least you should’ve dated Ritsu to keep the line pure—_ “

_“If you’re going to insist on dating men, keep your mouth shut about it.”_

_Shit like this is why Rei gives up on trying to exist peacefully at his own fucking house, and ends up at school not just on time, but early for once._

The music club room is a refuge, and for once, he’s beaten Keito to it. He throws his school bag onto the floor, ignoring it entirely in favor of unpacking his violin with far more delicacy, and sets it aside just for the time it takes to make his now-usual pillow and blanket pile in the corner. He flops down onto it, grabs his violin and bow, and slouches down into the blankets as he starts playing through a book of Paganini caprices by memory, the technique involved the only thing keeping him focused and not huddling up into a stupid ball of gross tears.

Keito enters the music club room, automatically reaches for the light to flick it on, and stops in surprise when it’s already occupied. He looks down to check his watch, but no, he’s on time perfectly as usual. Were Rei anyone else, Keito would think that he were picking himself up and being more responsible for once. With Rei, he closes the door behind himself, then folds his arms over his chest. “What’s wrong?”

Rei’s bow and fingers don’t stop. “I’m on 20 of 24,” he says tonelessly. “Just wait.”

15 minutes later, Rei slumps back, feeling more drained than satisfied, and now with Keito here, it’s harder still not to just burst into stupid, stupid tears over…what? Who even knows. That’s pretty par for the course, though, and Rei sniffs, huddling up around his violin. “I hate my whole family.” That’s not entirely true. He loves Ritsu, but he hates waking up to being picked on non _fucking_ stop.

“I have a filial duty to my family unit, and could never speak against them in such a way,” Keito says, so formally and so rote that the words are obvious in their insincerity. “Unofficially, I hope yours aren’t as stuffy as mine are. The whole, hmm, vampire thing? That must at least make them _interesting_.”

“No. It just makes my mother worse. She’s furious I’m dating you because ‘if I’m going to date another man, it should at least be my brother, then her bloodline can stay pure.’” 

Keito stares long and hard at Rei. Then he sits, seiza at the edge of the blanket pile. “Your family sounds more like Eichi’s than I anticipated. I suppose money is the same all over the world, even across species.”

Rei blinks at him, then sniffs, dabbing at his nose with his sleeve. “It’s not like we’re that kind of money. I don’t even get an allowance, like what the hell.” 

“I never even heard of an allowance before I met Eichi,” Keito says with a sigh. He reaches down into his schoolbag and pulls out a packet of tissues, handing one over. “Sorry, I just assumed that if your mother has been alive for hundreds of years she’d have sold some old coins and made a fortune or something. I’ve never heard of a poor vampire.”

Rei takes the tissue gratefully, blows his nose, and huddles back into the blankets again. On an afterthought, he shifts to plop his violin down onto its stand before settling back more comfortably. “I mean…yeah, we’re wealthy,” he grumpily admits. “My dad’s fucking nuts about money. He’s the CEO of an electronics company. But he’s nuts in the kind of way that he makes us come to him with a formal letter if we want something. Ritsu makes me do it for him every time.” He huffs. “And then he _still_  picks on me about getting a boyfriend, what the hell.”

“I suppose it was too much to ask to finally make a friend inside my income bracket,” Keito says with a sigh. “Then again, since the shrine is a nonprofit, my income bracket is zero. But at least you have nice musical instruments.”

“My income bracket is zero except for whatever someone throws in my guitar case in Shinjuku. That’s kinda the same thing.” 

“So, that’s why you hang out with those hooligans.” Keito has seen Rei’s band by now, and they’re so far away from his own personal style and preferences that it’s startling Rei hangs out with him at all. Of course, Rei doesn’t exactly hang out with him so much has come to the same club, even if they are apparently dating. “For profit. That’s more understandable than for some vague reason about future success.”

Rei manages a wet laugh at that. “I mean, yeah, I guess…” He trails off, shrugging, and attempts to readjust his pillow pile to make it look more inviting for Keito. “Mostly, I just like performing,” he admits. “Playing in orchestras and stuff like that, it’s different, and I can do that anywhere. My own band, though…that’s pretty awesome, and if I’ve got a chance to meet someone that can give me a boost in the industry…” Another shrug, and Rei pats what he thinks is a satisfactory comfy spot. “You know, you’re really pretty when you sit in seiza like that, but you could come cuddle with me.”

“You’ll have to drag me in again,” Keito says, mildly resigned to this fate. “I have no practice with such things outside of you. And if you’re going to be a cool musician man, I’m going to take my chances with you now.”

“Why do I always have to drag you?” Rei complains, grabbing Keito’s arm to do as much anyway. It takes no effort at all to drag Keito into his pile, and Rei immediately snuggles his way up to him. “You should want to cuddle with me. You think I’m hot.”

“Of course I do. I...” Damn, being _boyfriends_ means he’s supposed to be somewhat equal with Rei about this kind of thing, doesn’t it? This is hard. He carefully squirms closer, trying to make sure he’s not poking Rei anywhere unacceptable. “Look, teach me about cuddling and I’ll teach you about sex, when you’re ready.”

“I feel like knowing about cuddling is like, basic mode,” Rei wryly says, adjusting to get all four limbs around Keito, as is customary. “Why’d you skip the entry level shit, huh?” he murmurs, nuzzling his face into Keito’s neck. The thud of his pulse is always so strong and steady, and Rei shivers. “Distract me, I’m hungry.” 

Apprehension and arousal prickle up the back of Keito’s neck, and his breath catches. “That’s...mm. I can talk, if you’d like. Subjects of knowledge include temples, history, art, drawing, and funerals.”

“That’s going to make me want to bite you more because I like your voice. Make out with me.” 

“Oh. Well. That’s much easier, and in line with my interests.”

Keito turns, grabbing Rei by the shoulders and pushing him back into the blanket pile, somehow organizing his lanky limbs into straddling Rei’s hips. It’s far easier than cuddling to have a _goal_ in mind, and his hands aren’t shaking when he touches Rei’s chin, tilting it up to kiss Rei firmly on the mouth.

This does less to make his appetite go away and way more to…ah. Make it stronger.

_Didn’t expect that!_  Shit, what to do, what to do…well, there’s not much to do but to sling his arms around Keito’s waist, Rei’s fingers curling into his blazer. Kissing, at least, Rei has got figured out. It doesn’t require a lot of thought, and even if it puts Keito dangerously close to his fangs, Rei tries to be as careful as he can even when he parts his lips, tongue sneaking out for a taste.

Rei’s tongue is questing and delicate, enough to make Keito flush deeply pink, enough to make him hungry for more. He lets his tongue slide against Rei’s, lowering his hips to sit astride Rei’s. Gently, his hands come up to rest, one against Rei’s neck, the other on his chest, tracing over developing muscles there. What his fingers feel makes him hesitant to let Rei touch his own body--it’s far skinnier, nowhere nearly as well-developed, but hopefully if he takes charge enough, Rei won’t notice.

Keito tastes exactly like Rei thought he would taste—like a lot of green tea, which explains a lot about why his blood smells so _clean._  Thinking about Keito’s blood again is probably a mistake, because it makes Rei shiver, his fingers curling against Keito’s back when his kisses become more eager in turn, tasting more thoroughly as he lurches up from his pillows even as Keito leans down to meet him. Glasses aren’t as much of a foe in kissing as Rei thought they would be, and Rei gently catches Keito’s lower lip between his teeth, tugging, _trying_  not to let his fangs catch and cut. 

“Your teeth...they’re so sharp,” Keito whispers. His hands skate down, rucking up the hem of Rei’s shirt, sliding up against his flat belly and chest. “Nnh, your skin is so smooth, I...” Keito kisses again, hard and deep, then breathes, “Let me know if I’m making you uncomfortable. I just, you make me want to...”

“It’s fine, ’s fine,” Rei manages, his skin prickling pleasantly underneath Keito’s hands. “S-sorry about my teeth, I’m…I’ve never had to be careful about them before,” he admits with a breathless laugh, his fingers shaking a little in their over-eagerness to actually get underneath Keito’s shirt, too. Keito might be skinny, but there’s still an overlying softness to him that’s _nice_ , and the warmth that comes with that makes Rei shiver. “I can hear the way your pulse keeps getting faster, and faster…” he distractedly murmurs. “You smell _so_  good.”

Somewhere along the way, Keito forgets when he’d stopped thinking of Rei as some delusional chuunibiyou and started believing that he is, in fact, an immortal vampire. There are weirder things in this world, he supposes, and at least Rei is a good enough person under all of it. 

His skin shivers into goosebumps when Rei’s fingertips move over it, and he mutters, “Sorry, I’m--I don’t have any muscles, sorry--”

“So? You should take your shirt off.” Rei’s fingers _might_  already be absorbed with getting Keito’s tie undone. “Doesn’t matter if you’re still good-looking,” he decisively says, nosing at Keito’s neck, and playing with fire the second he presses a kiss there. He can _feel_  Keito’s pulse, and it makes him shudder, his fingers still, a strangled groan catch in his throat when he gives into the urge to at least suck on the skin there, leaving a hickey just above Keito’s collar.

The second the teeth graze his neck, Keito jerks away, hand pushing at Rei’s face, even as the other starts unbuttoning his shirt. “Don’t leave _marks_ , my father would kill me. If you’ve got to bite me, do it on the thighs.”

“But I wanna look at it later,” Rei whines in complaint, pushing back against Keito’s hand. “C’mon, it’ll just be one, you can mark _me_  up however you want. And I told you, I’m not allowed to drink from humans yet, don’t tell me I can or I’m _really_  gonna want to do it…” 

“I didn’t say _drink_ from me--behave yourself, I don’t want to get in trouble!” Keito flips one of the blankets up over Rei’s head, sitting back on his heels. “If you’re going to keep acting like a predator, I’m going to tie you up.”

“Hehh, I bet Keito knows a lot of kinbaku,” Rei teases, worming his way out from underneath the blanket again and reaching for Keito. “I’ll be good, I’ll be good—it’s not _my_  fault you smell like this.” 

“How the hell would I know any kinbaku?” Keito complains, letting himself be tugged forward. “I’m fourteen. And I thought you said I smell like incense, no one wants to eat incense.”

“ _You’re_  the one threatening to tie me up, and I’ve seen the kind of doujinshi you draw.” Rei shoves himself up to his elbows, mouthing another kiss to Keito’s throat, though he _doesn’t_  bite down and suck this time. _See, I told you I’d be good._  “You smell like incense, and your blood smells…mmn. Really clean. And fresh.” His eyes lid, and his fingers slide down to Keito’s hips. He hesitates, just for a moment, then goes for it, and grabs for Keito’s belt. “If you want, I’ll blow you.”

Keito sucks in a sharp breath, cock twitching hard at the words. He fumbles for something to say for a moment, then mutters, “Of course I want that,” and threads his hands into Keito’s hair, shoving his head down. With one hand, he works his fly open, the other curling in long, black, silken locks. “But if you bite me _there_ I’m going to put a stake through your heart.”

“That’s fair,” Rei says with a nervous laugh, shoving his hair back behind his ears before his fingers tug Keito’s pants and underwear down further, trembling in his over-eagerness. _Finally, finally._

Keito’s already so hard that it looks almost painful, and Rei has to briefly take stock and wonder what all he did, exactly, to get him this riled up. He licks his thumb, dragging it over the head of Keito’s cock, the heat of it and the way it twitches just from that touch making Rei’s breath hitch. “If I’m bad at this, please don’t break up with me,” he mutters, leaning down to let his lips brush against the tip of Keito’s cock, and then flick his tongue out for an actual taste.

Keito curses under his breath, a swear word or a garbled shout or just stupid noises, his cock leaking profusely already. Rei’s breath, his tongue do nothing to help that, only making his hips jerk up against that wet, hot touch. “So good,” he whispers, both his hands in Rei’s hair now, urging him down further, faster, more, until the head of his cock is entirely inside Rei’s mouth. “Fuck, _fuck, shit_ \--”

Fangs are a lot more work to finagle when there’s a dick in his mouth, go fucking figure. Keito’s grabbing hands and jerking hips don’t make it any easier, and Rei has half the mind to pull off and inform him as much—but—but then he won’t have a dick in his mouth, which is less than ideal. 

Instead of complaining, Rei settles for making it easier on himself. His tongue drags against the head of Keito’s cock, wet and hot and deliberate, tolerating the way Keito jerks his hips up one more time before he just follows the tug of those hands more, swallowing more of Keito’s cock down, his own hands curling against Keito’s hips to tug him forward. This is basically ideal in every way, easier on his hair when Keito pulls, easier to keep his fangs out of the way when Keito’s cock is already pushing down his throat, and Keito drips down his throat when he sucks and licks, which means way less of that bitter taste on his tongue. 

There’s also just something about having a dick in his mouth that makes his own cock achingly hard. 

Rei shudders, a groan muffled down his throat, and he cracks open an eye, just to catch a glimpse of Keito, just to see if he’s enjoying it—and fuck, yeah, apparently he’s not too bad at this after all. 

Keito shudders, muffles a shout into the back of one of his hands, and comes far too soon, spilling in an urgent flood down Rei’s throat, hot and wet and so messy he doesn’t want to think about it. Rei is too good, or maybe it’s just that he’s unused to how incredible this feels, because his hips buck and jerk long after he’d expected them to stop.

“Sorry,” he breathes, but his hand won’t quite uncurl from Rei’s hair until he grabs his wrist with the other hand, shaking it firmly. “Sorry, sorry, my hands cramp up sometimes...ah, fuck, you’re far too good at that for it to be your first time.”

Rei is pretty sure he nearly sneezes come, but whatever, Keito doesn’t have to know that. He finally pulls back, strangling down a cough, and swallows a few more times as he wipes his mouth. “A…am I?” he says with a hoarse laugh, blinking up at Keito with wet eyes and flushed skin. “I feel like I barely did anything…nn, it doesn’t taste as bad as everyone says. Maybe that’s just you, lucky me.”

“Maybe it’s all the incense and green tea,” Keito pants, flopping back on Rei’s blanket nest, feeling like his bones have turned into cooked spaghetti. “Give me a minute. I’m dying, you sucked out my soul.”

“Mmnn, good, I’ll do it again.” Rei slithers his way over, his cock achingly hard as it presses against Keito’s thigh, and his mouth very content to fasten to the lobe of one of Keito’s ears, tugging, sucking, then biting. “Maybe you’ll get in better shape if we have sex a lot? Let’s find out.” 

Keito’s mind is pleasantly blank, but he manages to murmur, “I don’t want to receive, if you don’t mind. I don’t...find it appealing or enjoyable. But anything else, just say the word.”

“That’s cool.” Somehow, Rei isn’t surprised, though he isn’t willing to _quite_  drop it without a compromise. “You can put it in…so long as you let me leave at least _one_  hickey.” 

Keito’s eyes narrow behind his glasses. “Counteroffer. You can leave up to five hickeys as long as none of them are visible either in my school uniform or archery uniform.”

“Hmmm…” Rei looks extremely contemplative of this, and not entirely convinced. “If one can be on your collarbone, right where I can tug your uniform down and see it.” 

Keito considers this for a long moment. There’s the possibility that someone else could look down and see it, and were he to change clothing it would certainly be visible, but...

But the idea of Sakuma Rei being enthusiastic to mark and _own_ him has its own appeal, he supposes. “Acceptable. You may go to town, as they say.”

Rei gleefully lurches forward, making good on the ‘threat’ of that particular hickey before Keito changes his mind. He kisses his way down to Keito’s collarbone, finding the _perfect_  spot beneath where that bone juts out, and fastens his mouth to it, sucking slowly to bring color quicker to the surface.

And blood, as it were.

He can’t stop himself from nipping, and the tiniest drop of blood that escapes makes him inhale sharply through his nose as he licks it up reflexively. “Sorry,” Rei breathes. It’s not enough to get a real taste, but it would just be so _easy_  if he did bite…

Keito draws back, not jerks, and looks down at the forming spot on his collarbone. Slowly, his fingers come up to gently trace over its edges, blood pounding at the idea of what would happen if anyone saw, anyone discovered. He suddenly feels very delinquent, and very much like he’d appreciate being more delinquent still. Without pausing, he shoves Rei back onto the pillows, reaching down to pluck at his waistband, sliding a hand underneath to curl around the hard heat he finds there. “Accept the consequences,” he breathes, because he can’t think of anything else to say.

Someone else’s hand on his dick is new, and… _apparently_ , pretty fucking great, according to the way his mind sputters to a halt. Rei sucks in a sharp breath, his mouth suddenly dry as his legs spread and his hips arch up to better shove himself against Keito’s hand. “I-is that supposed to be a consequence?” he groans, reaching up to grab at Keito’s back, sinking his nails in. “Your hands are so _smooth_ , you need to practice more…”  Yeah, because that’s totally where his mind should be right about now.

Keito hisses at the pricks of sharp nails to his back, and squeezes, stroking hard and quick now that he has confirmation, motivation. The way Rei’s thighs part is a heady thing that goes to Keito’s cock, and he moves his hand faster, unable to resist a quip. “I don’t think this will make my hands less smooth, but I’m willing to practice all you want.”

“N-not like—I mean, yeah, _whatever_.” With a hand on his dick, Rei is pretty sure he’d agree to just about anything. Rei digs his heels in, bucking up against the squeeze of Keito’s fingers, the hard, sure strokes of his hand, and pries one of his hands off of Keito’s back to distractedly pinch at one of his own nipples, rolling it between his fingers with a long shudder. “Just a little—y-yeah, like that, I—“

So, having an orgasm with someone else is a _bit_  different, and Rei bites down on a breathy, ragged noise as he comes over Keito’s hand. “Fuck—fuck, that’s good,” he dazedly mutters, slumping back, pawing at Keito to make sure he stays close. “Mmn, do it again.”

Keito surges forward to kiss Rei hard, hand not moving, cupping the softening flesh as if he’s reluctant to let go. “If I do it again,” he breathes, eyes alight behind his glasses, his own cock getting swiftly hard again, “I want to put it in this time. You’re just--you look so _good_ , you make me want to.”

Keito’s hand still somehow feels good, even if he’s oversensitive and overstimulated, and Rei wagers that has a lot to do with the idea of doing _more_ , so he languidly rolls his hips up into that touch. “So long as you know what you’re doing,” Rei murmurs, softly biting Keito’s lip when he kisses him back, sucking it into his mouth and releasing it with a sticky trail of saliva still connecting them. His fingers absently pinch his own nipple again, just to see what will happen, and the resulting jolt makes his cock twitch underneath Keito’s hand as his breath hiccups. “I wanna keep feeling good.”

Keito’s eyes steal down, and his breath catches. Carefully, he pushes Rei’s shirt up, ignoring his words, and fastens his lips around one pink, flushed nipple, tugging on it with his teeth. Eichi’s butler, Satoru, had been sensitive here, too. Maybe that rumor that men who like being penetrated also like having their chests played with is true after all. 

His hands drop to wriggle Rei’s pants down, after having quite enough of his wrist cramping and aching from being bent in weird positions. It’s easy enough to part Rei’s legs, which he takes as a good sign, his own fingers stroking gently, encouragingly over that sensitive skin where hip meets soft inner thigh. “Don’t worry. I’ll make you feel good.”

Having someone else’s _mouth_  on his nipples is definitely… _more._  Rei’s breath catches again, his face flushing hotter, and he drags a hand up through Keito’s hair, fingers curling against his scalp. “You sound so manly when you say that,” he says with a ragged little laugh, squirming to kick his pants off of the leg they still try to cling to. His cock already throbs between his legs again, harder by the second with each petting of Keito’s fingers against his skin, and he huffs, toes curling as he lets his thighs fall open further. “I’ve done it with my fingers before and everything, so you don’t have to worry about me not liking it.”

Keito gives him a brief smile, and brings his fingers up to Rei’s lips, his breath stuttering in his throat when just that much reminds him so much of what Rei had done earlier, and how good it’d felt. “Good. Though honestly, I wasn’t worried about it.”

He lets his fingers slip further in, brushing over red lips, then delving against Rei’s tongue, his eyes glinting behind his glasses. “You seem like the type who’d like it.”

“What’s that supposed t—mmnf.” Rei doesn’t even have it in him to glower at Keito because, huh, okay, sure, that whole little exchange just has to go straight to his dick for some reason, making him shiver and sink down, his tongue dragging readily over Keito’s fingers. They’re long and soft-skinned and taste like sweat, salty and a little bitter from where they were around his dick not too long ago, and Rei’s eyes flutter as he sucks and licks.

“That’s...good,” Keito breathes, his glasses starting to fog up in his eagerness, and he reaches up to snatch them off his face with less care than he’s ever shown his glasses in the past. His hands are far better spent in sliding down, pressing slick fingers against Rei’s hole between his parted thighs, watching his face for any sign of discomfort or annoyance as he slides the first finger in to the second knuckle. His mouth goes dry at how tight and hot it is, and in his eagerness, he slides in another fingertip, halfway panting now. “That feels good, doesn’t it? The room is soundproof, isn’t it, so you can tell me as loud as you want.”

Someone _else_  doing this is better than anticipated. The angle is better, how deep Keito’s fingers slide inside is better, there’s no contorting to _reach_ anything…and god, it’s with _someone else_ , which shouldn’t be the sole qualifier to make him all the more turned on, but…

“Fuck,” Rei mutters, reflexively clamping a hand over his mouth to keep his voice down, no matter how Keito reminds him about the room being soundproof. His breath hiccups in his throat as he squirms down, leverage nowhere to be found on his now dilapidated pillow fortress, which is all the better when it just makes him sink down more quickly onto Keito’s hand. The twinge that goes up his spine makes Rei gulp, the squeeze of his body around those fingers impossible to control, and his cock twitches hard, dripping onto his stomach. “It’s…’s good, god, y-you can…more’s fine…”

Keito moves his other hand to Rei’s cock, ready to stroke him back to hardness if it had started to wilt from the sudden stretch, but... “Ah. You don’t even need me to touch you here, do you?”

  
He punctuates the question with a long curl of his fingers, sliding the two of them in as deep as possible, rubbing and stroking as a slow smile spreads on his lips. “You like it enough when I touch you back here? Don’t come without me, I want to put it in before you do.” Maybe his dialogue is a little bit _old school_ , perhaps, but he’d learned it all from older yaoi manga, so there’s little to be done about that. Hopefully Rei won’t mind too much.

Rei hisses out a breath that’s mostly curses, one hand thumping helplessly against the nearest pillow as the other remains firmly clamped over his own mouth, stifling the _really_  embarrassingly eager noises that keep wanting to escape when his hips roll down. _No chill, I have no chill about this_ , he frantically thinks, sucking in a sharp, ragged breath when Keito’s fingers just happen to curl just right, and—

“Put it in,” Rei pants out, grabbing suddenly at Keito’s arm, his own fingers trembling as he clutches at him, trying simultaneously to still him and to pull him closer, which is all courtesy of one very overstimulated brain. “N-now, or I’m _gonna_  come again.”

If there’s a man alive who would be able to turn down Sakuma Rei grabbing at him and pleading for cock, Keito wouldn’t want to meet him. That man would have a frightening amount of self-control that Hasumi Keito just does not have.

He loses what he does have left, shoving Rei down onto the pillows flat on his back, quickly positioning all his awkward, noodly arms and legs until he’s finally in something like a good position, grabbing Rei’s knees from below and hoisting them up so he can rub the head of his cock over that little hole--is it wet enough? Stretched enough? Rei is begging to be fucked, so it _must_ be fine--and just _in_ , biting down a rough low curse. “Is that--shit, that’s so good, shit, you feel so _good_ \--”

Dicks are a lot more than fingers, turns out, but—but that’s fine, because that _edge_  just makes Rei’s mind click off more.

_God_ , it’s a relief, somehow, to have that much shoved into him. It’s more than fingers, and more at once is overwhelming and good when he’s suddenly getting stuffed full of cock. It’s still too tight, maybe not slick enough, hard to tell when Keito’s cock was dripping against his hole and is now sinking into him, spreading him open, and Rei’s mouth parts in low, ragged panting, his legs trembling in Keito’s hold and trying not to kick him when his body clenches down and squeezes. “’s good, don’t stop,” Rei hastens to reassure him, shoving his hand down to his own cock and wiping at the sticky, slick mess pooling on his stomach. He squirms to reach down and wrap his fingers around Keito’s cock, slicking it up even further before he wriggles down with a ragged groan, testing to see if that helped make it easier at all—and god, yes, it does. “Fuck me,” Rei begs. “Hard, c’mon Keito, please—“

Rei’s fingers are blindingly quick, slicking his cock with Rei’s own release, and just that added wet easy _slide_ is enough to make Keito thrust in deeper than he’d intended, a strangled yelp dragged out of his mouth. 

As if that’s the starting pistol going off, he lets himself go harder, giving up on myopically staring at Rei when he can _feel_ instead, touching and gripping and kissing to the point of bruising, his whole awareness narrowed to where they’re joined, to how it feels to bury his aching cock deep in Rei’s tight hole over and over again. “You’re so--god, it feels so good, you feel so good, you--Rei, _Rei_ \--”

Keito panting those words against his mouth, against his ear with every hot, humid breath, makes it even harder not to just fucking give up and come already.

The best is when Keito’s cock shoves in so deep that Rei swears he feels it in his throat. Logically, that doesn’t make sense, but that’s what it feels like, and Rei chokes on his breath every single time, gulping air and failing at doing anything but scrabbling at Keito’s back, clinging to him when his cock’s so far in that the coarse hairs around it grind against his ass. It’s thinking about that, thinking about how Keito’s cock is in him, that far, that deep, that much, that makes Rei unexpectedly come, gasping out a ragged breath against Keito’s shoulder when he spills over his own stomach again. 

If anything, that just makes it better. Flushed and overstimulated, wriggling down onto Keito’s cock feels like an indulgence, drawing out the little waves of aftershocks that normally seem like too much work when he clenches down, his breath hitching against Keito’s throat when Rei nuzzles his face there mindlessly, and inhales the scent of his skin and pulse.

Keito has survived a lot up until now, but there’s no way he can survive Rei coming on his cock, writhing down and _squeezing_ , so tight it feels like it’s squeezing the actual life out of him in a way Keito needs to get more of like he needs air. He gasps, lurching in, in, _in_ , again and again until he loses himself, coming deep inside of Rei with a few last, urgent ruts of his hips.

Then he collapses on top of Rei, all of his muscles going abruptly nonfunctional, as if he’s a puppet whose strings have all been cut, leaving him supremely limp, muttering something that might be an apology to the Buddha.

Everything inside of him is suddenly, decidedly more full, and Rei shifts, squirms a little to see if that changes anything, and when it doesn’t, he flops back, torn between vague discomfort and the fact that he sort of likes it. _Fucking weird._

His legs slither down to squeeze against Keito’s hips either way, and Rei shuts his eyes, exhaling a long, ragged breath. “You’re _good_ ,” he mutters, flopping one hand against Keito’s back to kinda-sorta pet him.

Keito grunts. It’s all he can manage for the moment, and is sort of amazed he manages that much. “You,” he forces out, butting his head down against Rei’s shoulder. 

“I just flopped here, you did the thing.” Rei’s eyes crack open sleepily before he gives up on that idea, and shoves his face into Keito’s neck, inhaling. “God, you smell _so_  good right now, I’m gonna die…” 

“Then die,” Keito mumbles, unable to think of anything else to say. “What do you want me to do about it?”

“Lemme take a drink sometime. Secretly.” Maybe his mom won’t find out (doubtful, she finds out everything). “Be nice to me, I just let you put it in.”

“You enjoyed it. More like I let you have it.”

Rei growls, then rolls, fastening himself to Keito with all four limbs and _really_  not caring if they remain stuck together like this. “Be nice, or never again.” A blatant lie, admittedly. He’s going to need this to happen all the time.

The threat is an effective one, and Keito suddenly finds his politeness, even if he can’t move yet. “You’re right, I’m sorry, you’re very good to let me put it in, _please_ let me do it again soon...Captain, that was just the _best_.”

“Too much, find a peaceful median. Buy me a tomato juice later or something.”

“Fine, whatever. Whatever will get you to stop talking.” Keito is _great_ at being a boyfriend.

~

It’s more difficult than anticipated to actually be _subtle_  in public, especially when Rei knows what they could be doing in private. 

Keito, at least, is artful at keeping his hand just out of reach, or else Rei would be cheerfully grabbing onto it as they leave after deeming their club practice time over. He fiddles with his phone instead, distracting himself by checking over Ritsu’s twitter, and doesn’t notice at first when a very clean, very streamlined car pulls up to the curb, stopping right next to them as if it’s bene waiting for their appearance. 

“Keito! You kept me _waiting_.” 

Out from the car hops a tall, slender boy, his dark hair perfectly cut and layered about his face, and his brilliantly sky-blue contacts creating a startling contrast. Immediately, Rei knows this is _the_ childhood friend, _the_  Tenshouin Eichi, and it has nothing to do with the face or demeanor—everything to do with the fact that he smells like medicine and hospitals, like something sickly and pale. 

“You told me that club practice would be out earlier,” Eichi complains, folding his arms across his chest. He’s almost as tall as Keito, but not quite, but has none of the gawkiness that he does (and far more of the shoulders). “Do you not want to spend time with me now?” 

Keito ducks his head, trying not to immediately flush and stutter and panic like he _wants_ to when no, oh, god, Eichi and Rei are in the same place at the same time, and the two so different parts of himself he doesn’t allow anyone to know both of are _meeting_ , like Alice meeting herself through the looking glass--

“You’re mocking me, Eichi. I’m just trying to beef up my extracurriculars, as you suggested.” What Eichi had said was _Make sure you don’t fall behind on your music, or the schools I’m going to will never let you in! Stay in good shape in every way!_

Keito shifts away from Rei, not wanting Eichi to get the right idea, knowing how quickly his mind is usually read around him. 

Eichi is skeptical. It’s clear as day across his face, and when his attention turns to Rei, it’s not only skeptical, but disdainful. “This is who you’re spending time with now, huh? Geez, Keito…I knew you were in a music club, but…” 

Rei bites his tongue—hard. “You must be Tenshouin-kun,” he says, trying his damnedest to be polite when Eichi is genuinely so terrible. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Only good things, I know,” Eichi brightly says, and then ignores Rei outright, his full attention right back onto Keito. “Extracurriculars are great and all, but if you wanna be a top idol with me, then you have to stick to schedules,” he firmly says, grabbing Keito’s hand. “Which means spending time with me whenever I want, let’s go.” 

“Actually,” Rei butts in, grabbing Keito’s other hand impulsively to drag him back. Eichi rubs him the wrong way—did so immediately—and it just keeps getting worse by the second. He wasn’t going to make an issue about it, but now… “I was going to steal him for the evening. If he wants a full scholarship to Yumenosaki, then more practice is key.” 

“Oh, and what do you know about that?” Eichi scoffs, tightening his grip on Keito. “Come on, Keito, let’s go.”

Ah. This is the worst thing that could ever happen, ever, in the world. Keito is fairly certain about that. He feels his body freeze up one joint at a time, starting at his brain and spreading to his feet, leaving him standing immobile as a statue, paralyzed from the shock of actually having Rei and Eichi fight over him, like one of his goddamn daydreams.

Well, shit.

Eichi is the one who gets annoyed first. “You know what, fine,” he says, releasing Keito’s hand with a huff. “Go off and practice then, _don’t_  spend time with me.”

“For someone that wants him to come and ‘be a top idol with him’, you sure don’t know what it takes.” Whoops. He probably shouldn’t be picking that fight, but whaaaatever, here he goes. It’s funny to watch the way Eichi’s face twists, furious and seconds away from stomping his foot like a child. “C’mon, Keito,” Rei says, squeezing Keito’s hand. “No point in wasting time, yeah?”

Keito’s mind sparks and fries, and he almost falls over at the tug, until something in his mind makes him put one foot in front of the other, slowly, almost zombie-like. No words come to him, pupils constricted to pinpoints, and all of Eichi and Rei’s speech sounds like it’s underwater, coming from a very long way away. Hopefully, whoever’s got his hand is taking him to somewhere better than here.

“Keito, you suck!” Eichi yells after him, _definitely_  stomping his foot now, and whirls way, slamming the door to his driver’s car as he throws himself back inside of it. 

For his part, Rei is smug. It’s hard not to be, when he’s pissed off a spoiled little bocchama-apparent—but this victory would be better served with someone that seemed happier about being dragged off, and it’s with an exasperated sigh that Rei pauses, turning to give Keito a firm shake by the shoulders. “Oi. Keito, dumbass, look at me. God, your taste is bad, why are you so into that little shit? Is it because he’s pretty?” _He’s not that pretty, I’m prettier_ —that’s what he’d say, if he could somehow get the words off of his tongue. Self-confidence is pretty short-lived around here.

It takes the shake, and another very long moment, before Keito starts to come back to himself. He blinks, shakes his head, and brings a hand up to rub at his pounding temples, his feet starting to move less stiffly. “Oh...Rei. Is Eichi gone?”

“Yeah, he hopped in his fucking limo and left after stomping his foot like a three year old.” If he sounds annoyed, it’s because he is. “Can you _not_  do that?”

“Don’t worry, I won’t. I don’t even have a limo.”

“Fuck you. I was talking about completely ignoring me when he’s around, but sure, make a joke about it.”

Keito jerks back, startled at the sudden ferocity of the words. Then he hisses out a breath through his teeth, pushing up his glasses. “Oh. I’ve never done that around you yet? I wasn’t ignoring you. I fainted. I do that sometimes. Often, really.”

Rei frowns at him. “ _Fainting_  usually implies you’re on the ground and unconscious, you know,” he mutters, narrowing his eyes. “I mean…fine, if you say so. Are you going to do that every single time he shows up to drag you off?” 

“Oh. No, I should think not. I was just suddenly...overwhelmed, by the idea of the two of you fighting over me. It’s not something I expected to happen.” Keito takes a tentative step closer, hoping he hasn’t just ruined everything by being his usual weak, ridiculous self. “Sorry.”

“Cool.” Rei’s mouth twists. “Noted.” _Then I shouldn’t have reacted at all and should’ve just let you fuck off with him._  That sounds like a _lot_  of fun for him, and—fuck, he swore to himself he’d be _cool_  about this, about Tenshouin goddamn Eichi. He shrugs his violin up onto his shoulder and glances away, more annoyed with himself by the moment, but unable to curb it back. “So you’re still like, _really_  into him, I guess.” 

“I never said I wasn’t,” Keito says quietly. He doesn’t flinch away from Rei’s eyes, his own steady and green as always. “It’s the second thing you ever learned about me. I’ve felt this way for a decade, there’s no reason to expect the damned hole in the pit of my stomach will go away any time soon.”

“Yeah, well. Seeing it in action kinda sucks.” _Time to shut up, Rei_ , his mind cheerfully tells him, but nope, that’s not happening. “He’s really terrible. What the hell, Keito.”

“Yes.” Keito shrugs. “I make no apologies for him. I just...there’s more.” No, this is not Talk About How Great Eichi Is time, Hasumi Keito! “There _is_ more to him. He is capable of immense kindness, and there’s life and ambition in him...”

Rei considers himself pretty patient about most things—excluding his mother, but even that he _tries_  to put up with. This, though; this skirts a line. “Sure.” He feels himself turning away, walking away before he can get visibly pissed off. “Go put your dick in him, then, and see how he likes it.” 

Keito doesn’t hesitate this time, following after Rei as fast as his spindly legs can carry him. “You’re being unfair. I never hid this from you!”

“No, but I thought you’d at _least_  have the balls to pick me over him when we’re _actually dating_ ,” Rei hisses through his teeth, not stopping until a crosswalk forces him to. “Or at least I thought you’d _try_  to hide how much you enjoy being fought over. _You’re_  not being fair.” 

Keito stares at him, reaching out to grab Rei’s sleeve. “You thought I _enjoyed_ that? I lost consciousness because I was panicking so much--I knew he could see how much I care about you, and I _never_ know what he’s going to do!”

“What the fuck do you think a spoiled little bocchama’s gonna do?” Rei snaps, turning and slapping Keito’s hand away. “You don’t get both. You don’t get ‘he’s not interested in me, he’ll never want me’ _and_  ‘he’ll flip out if I’m with someone else.’” 

Keito wants to argue, but he knows how this one goes. No one wants to hear that Eichi is unstoppable, far more formidable than anyone knows, and has just about no boundaries. They see the child, rather than the adult Keito knows he’ll be one day, but no one wants to hear that, least of all Rei. 

He lets his hand fall, in utter frustration. “Fine. Tell me what to avoid saying or doing, then. I don’t know how this fucking works.”

“Literally just telling him you made other plans that don’t involve him would be great.” The words are sullen, and the crosswalk changes from _walk_  to _stop_ again, ignored. “Or, you know. Acting like I exist when he’s around. Seriously, fuck you. You know how shit works when I’m not mad at you.” Rei shoves his hands into his sweater pockets, shifting unhappily. The early evening sun makes him itch, and he longs for his coffin more and more by the second. “I’m not even asking for you to tell him we’re dating, or for you to stop wanting to stick your tongue down his throat. I just think it’s pretty normal to pick your boyfriend over some guy that an barely give you the time of day, that’s all.” _And if you don’t think so, why are we doing this?_  is the next thing he wants to say, but doesn’t, in lieu of sniffing incriminatingly. 

Keito huffs out a sigh. “You’re misunderstanding _all_ of my actions. I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt in assuming that it’s on accident because your feelings are hurt.”

He steps the tiniest bit closer to Rei, though not without fear that it’ll panic him and send him running again. Diplomatically, he keeps his hands at his sides, clenched into weak fists. “I didn’t want him to know about us. He’s always been able to read my mind, in a way. Not that I care about--about what he thinks of me in that way--I’ve always been very open about liking men, to him--but it seemed beyond presumptuous of me to make that decision for _you_. I don’t know what he’d do.”

“Oh.” That, at least, makes sense, even though it still rubs him the wrong way. Rei shifts awkwardly, fidgeting. “I get that, I guess. But—for the record—I don’t mind if he knows. He can think whatever he wants of me; then maybe he’ll figure out what he’s missing in you, heh.”

Keito’s cheeks flush at the unexpected praise. “It’s...hard for me to think so,” he manages, looking down at his feet. “When he knows just about everything about me. It’s...hard for me to imagine that anyone would want to date me, when it seems like more trouble than it’s worth.”

“You’re a dumbass,” Rei bluntly says, lurching forward again and hesitantly grabbing for Keito’s hand, squeezing tight. “But I don’t know why you’d think no one would wanna date you. If he thinks you’re a pain in the ass, he’s an idiot.” 

“But...he _isn’t_.” Keito squeezes back, biting his own lip until it bleeds. “When you confess to someone who’s known you your whole life and you learn you just aren’t _enough_ , I suppose, you develop a somewhat...influenced idea. I’m regularly surprised that you want to spend time with me. I’ve been told I’m very unpleasant.”

“…If I thought you were unpleasant, I wouldn’t be _anywhere_  around you,” Rei says with a laugh, awkwardly trying to twine their fingers together. The scent of Keito’s blood suddenly, out of nowhere, is a distraction he doesn’t need, and he glances away with a huff of breath. “I know you think the sun shines out of Tenshouin’s ass, but maybe he’s the jerkass that has a bad personality, not you.”

“Not for nothing,” Keito says quietly, fingers stroking, curling gently against Rei’s palm, “I thought you were here for music and sex.”

“Keito…if I just wanted music and sex, I play in orchestra. Literally every music kid wants to fuck and play duets.” 

“...Oh. Huh.” Keito frowns, looking down at their joined hands. “Then you’re honestly with me because of my personality? Oh. That...changes things.”

Rei blinks at him, his head tilting. “Did you…did you really think I didn’t like…actually… _like_ you? I mean, I could get just hanging out with me because we have good sex, but…” 

“Well, no one likes me. How should I know a vampire would be different?” Keito adjusts his glasses, avoiding Rei’s gaze. “I’m very good at getting what I want from people, most of the time, but it isn’t because I’m charming. It’s because I’m persistent.”

“…I dunno, I think that’s pretty charming.” Rei shrugs, running his thumb across the back of Keito’s hand. “If I didn’t think you were funny and hot, I wouldn’t be around you and I definitely wouldn’t let you do me.” 

“Oh.” Keito clears his throat, turning to face his unreasonably hot boyfriend at last. “Fine. I won’t proceed with false assumptions any longer. Is that acceptable?”

“I mean, yeah, I’d prefer that,” Rei laughs, lifting his other sleeve to wipe at his nose. “Sorry for freaking out, but…I actually like you, you know? I didn’t think that was up in the air, but, heh, learn something new every day.”

“I suppose. Learning...is good.” The idea that someone actually likes him and wants to spend time around him--Keito supposes he’ll be dealing with that for quite some time, and hopefully will master it eventually. He takes another step closer, until he’s near enough to lean up and kiss, though he probably won’t.   
“In case you don’t know--you’re probably better at people than I am, but just in case...I like spending time with you, too.”

“I _figured,_ but you had me second-guessing everything.” Rei glances around, making sure there’s not another human in sight before he leans in, stealing what is supposed to be a quick kiss—but then there’s still that little taste of blood on Keito’s lip, and he can’t help but lick it off, shivering down to his toes. “I like you a _lot_ , Keito.”

The lick isn’t the motion Keito expects, and it sends a jolt of unexpected arousal through him, freezing him in place again, in a much more pleasurable way than last time. He licks his own lips, and shudders a little. “That...you tasted my blood, didn’t you?” It tastes like blood to him, like iron and salt, boring and familiar from any time he’s brushed his teeth too hard. “Does it taste different to you?”

“Mmn, yeah. It’s sweet. And really, really rich.” Rei’s fingers tighten around Keito’s, and the effort it takes not to kiss him again and _taste_  again… “It makes it really hard to stop,” he admits with a ragged little laugh. “You taste so good.” 

Keito looks around at the street. It isn’t exactly busy, but it isn’t exactly _empty_ , either. Cautiously, he suggests, “If you aren’t that serious about practicing today, my parents and brother are on a pilgrimage this week. Ah, unless vampires can’t step inside temples?”

Immediately, Rei brightens, a metaphorical dog starting to wag its tail. “I can step into temples. I think? I mean, I don’t try that often, but I bet if you’re escorting me, it’s fine.” It isn’t as if he’s wanted to see where Keito lives for awhile now or anything. “We can practice _later_.” 

Later in that tone of voice sounds more like after, and Keito is very invested in everything that happens in between where they are now and the hypothetical ‘later.’ He shifts, then starts off in the wrong direction, correcting after a befuddled moment. “I have ideas about something to practice first.”

_Rei contently trails at Keito’s heels, still firmly latched to his hand. “You still think we need practice?” he teases. “I don’t know about you, but I think we’re pretty good at doing most things now…”_

“Maybe you’re content with _pretty good_ ,” Keito says, with far too much confidence for someone who had forgotten where his own home is five minutes prior, “but I have higher standards for myself. Try to keep up.”

“Hehh, does that mean Keito’s gonna spend time making me feel _real_  good at his temple?” Rei hums, leaning forward to nuzzle at the back of Keito’s neck when he can’t quite help himself, even if they are in public. “You can be a perfectionist, I like that side of you.” 

“I haven’t decided which sides of you I like the most yet.” Keito’s skin shivers and prickles in a most pleasing fashion, and he nearly stumbles down the street, heading towards his temple as fast as possible. “So you should keep showing me different sides of you. I hope I’m being clear, I want to look at you naked.”

“You should draw on me. Whatever you want, calligraphy…” Rei idly runs his thumb against the back of Keito’s wrist. “Tally marks…” 

Keito’s breath stutters out of his lips, and he squirms, a little uncomfortable with his current physical state while he walks so briskly. “Ah. I...ah. Yes. Well. Ah.” He pauses for a moment, then adds softly, “I’ve drawn you nude. In my sketchbook.”

“Oh?” Rei grins, quickening his steps. “And you haven’t shown me? But you’re such a good artist, you should want to show off~” 

“How do you know what my art looks like?” Keito asks, startled. “I haven’t shown you my sketchbooks.”

“…I miiiight have sneaked a peek, when you brought them to practice and left them in your bag…”

“Then it’s your own fault you haven’t seen the one of yourself. You weren’t a good enough spy. Also, you’re lucky I’m used to bad behavior after dealing with Eichi, or I’d be cross.”

“I didn’t want to dig through all of your stuff! You should’ve just shown me, ooor you can just draw _on_  me, I think I’d make a pretty good canvas!”

“You can’t pull the _morality_ card when you just admitted to going through my stuff, Rei! Why do you think you’d be a good canvas? You’re all human-shaped, not paper-shaped!”

“Because I’m as white as paper and there’s a lot of real estate? I just want you to write love poetry on my thighs, Keito—or I’ll settle for tally marks—you’re supposed to be _pleased_  about that idea.”

“What if I make a spelling error?” Keito asks crossly, because walking while being pedantic is a lot easier than walking while being painfully aroused. “It’ll smudge. I mean, I work hard on my calligraphy, but that doesn’t mean I’m a poet.”

“You could just sign your name,” Rei wheedles. “I won’t wash it off, even after we have fun~…”

Keito’s eyes flick to the side, and he says neutrally, “If I want to be an idol, I’ll need practice signing my name. Possible a lot of practice. And on odd surfaces, as well. I might need to write it all over you.”

Rei’s eyes light up (success!), and he releases Keito’s hand in favor of idly running a pair of fingers down his back. “You’ll have to perfect your autograph,” he cheerfully agrees. “I guess I’ll have to be good and try to hold still, hmm?” 

“It will be good discipline practice for you, I assume. The Buddha knows you need it. If you flinch, I’ll make you stand outside holding buckets and reciting Buddhist prayers.”

“Uh uh. Not happening. Just make me suck your dick.” 

Keito pretends to consider for a moment, then nods at last. “I think that sounds like an acceptable compromise,” just as he turns up the cobblestone path to his family’s temple.

“Uwa…” Rei tilts his head back to stare at the full expanse of the temple, whistling underneath his breath. “I don’t know what I was imagining,” he admits. “Maybe like, one of those little add-on temples that you see at some houses? But this is the real deal. Super cool.” 

“Of course,” Keito says, somewhat loftily. “I told you, my family has been the caretakers here for hundreds of years. You don’t get that kind of thing at a minor shrine. I can tell you all about the history, if you like.”

“Later. When we’re practicing _other_  things.” 

Rei tugs on the back of his shirt, sidling up closer as they pass through the temple doors. His chin hooks over Keito’s shoulder from behind, his face nuzzling into the side of his neck. “I can’t stop thinking about the way you taste.” That could be blood, or…something else. Keito can assume whichever. “And there don’t seem to be any gods angry about a vampire being here, so…”

Keito holds up a hand, pushing Rei’s face away. “Not yet, god, there are shrine maidens around. Behave yourself, foul creature of the night.”

God, but this is _properly_ scandalous. Keito feels his own steps quickening as they reach his room, and he slides the shoji door shut behind them, revealing an almost barren four walls and floor on a tatami mat. “Once I get out my futon, _then_ you may attack.”

“…We’re gonna have to be _quiet_ ,” Rei notes, his eyebrows slowly raising. It _is_  what he expected, admittedly, but knowing and seeing it are two different things. “How do you have _any_  privacy around here? Or keep out light, for that matter…”

“I don’t, and I don’t.” Keito hauls his futon out from behind a whisper-quiet closet door, briskly setting up the thin pallet on the floor. “There’s a reason beyond exhibitionism that I enjoy doing this in the music club room.”

“And here I thought my pillow fort turned you on,” Rei sighs, waiting a scarce _second_  for the futon to be down before he pounces, hands on Keito’s belt, mouth on Keito’s neck. “Futon’s out,” he hums, tilting his head to suck on the lobe of Keito’s ear. “You’re fair game.”

All of Keito’s breath leaves him in a startled huff that turns into a moan, and he wriggles back, rubbing his ass against Rei’s hips before he realizes what he’s doing, letting his head tilt and roll to the side to give Rei more room. “F-fair enough,” he gasps, toes curling on the tatami mat, reaching back to grab at Rei’s hips and keep him close. “Ah, fuck, you have the best mouth.”

Rei eagerly rubs forward, his breath escaping as a quick, hot huff against Keito’s neck when his cock rubs against the curve of Keito’s ass. He bites the lobe of Keito’s ear unthinkingly, the urge to put his teeth to _something_  too strong when he’s riled up and jittery and needy, and the little pricks of blood that come up when he pulls his mouth away just make him groan. “You want me to suck it, ride it, what?” he pants out, reaching around to fumble with Keito’s belt. “Whatever you want.”

Keito bites off another curse, slapping his own hand over his mouth as his glasses slip down his nose. “Fuck--yes,” he groans, not even knowing what he’s agreeing to, then-- “Ride it, I want to watch you, you should--finger yourself too, Rei, you’ve got the best hands.”

He slinks down to the futon, shoving his school uniform trousers down until he can kick them off, lying back against the floor to watch his boyfriend move. Every damn way he moves is so sinful, so _beautiful_ that it makes his breath come faster.

Truth be told, Rei doesn’t really _get_  what about himself turns Keito on—but he rolls with it every time to good results. The basic stuff he gets loud and clear; talk about sex, kiss him, bite him, nuzzle up to him and _attempt_  being cute or sexy, even if it’s frustrating at best at times…but sometimes Keito watches him like he’s watching an AV, face flushed, eyes wide, and, well, there’s nothing to do but assume he’s doing something right.

In this case, it’s fumbling with his sweater, and unbuttoning the shirt underneath to shrug it all off before starting on his own trousers with shaky fingers. “You’ve got lube, right? If not, I’ve got like…” He shoves a hand into the pocket of his pants before he drops them and kicks them aside, tossing one packet onto Keito’s chest. “ _That_ , and nothing else, so be nice to me.” He drops down to his knees, crawling up between Keito’s legs. “You want me to face you?” he asks, tucking his hair behind his ears. “Or turn around, so you can really watch?”

“I’m very certain I don’t deserve this,” Keito breathes, then flushes when he realizes he’s spoken out loud. “Er, that is...turn around, I want to watch it. And don’t worry.” 

He lurches to the side, grabbing at his school bag, and comes out with two large freestanding bottles of lubricant, passing one over. “A gift. I figured we could keep one in the club room, I just forgot.”

“Keito’s being _cute_ ,” Rei teases, taking the bottle with a little sigh of relief. “You deserve whatever you want if you keep being nice to me, that’s how it works.”

Rei readjusts, turning around, arranging his own long legs underneath himself when he straddles Keito’s thighs. Even just touching one for a second is a mistake—feeling the fast-thudding pulse there makes him shiver and jerk, and a sharp inhale makes it that much easier to smell the way Keito’s blood pumps fast and hard through his veins. It’s with a shaky breath that Rei uncaps the lube, dripping it over his fingers before he reaches back to press one against his own hole. 

Thank god for long arms and long fingers, because it’s easy to sink that first finger inside, deep and thorough. Rei shivers, his mouth falling open and his weight sinking onto his other hand as he pitches forward, sliding that finger in deep and curling it to automatically stroke. “You better…fuck me hard, if I’m getting myself ready like this for you,” he rasps, the muscles in his back bunching and tensing when he presses back onto his own hand.

“That’s not going to be a problem.”

Keito hardly recognizes his own voice, rasping and low, the words falling from his lips like someone else is in control of what he says as he stares. His eyes are locked on the place where Rei is touching himself, his entire awareness narrowed to that pretty little hole being stretched and prepared--for _him_ , to slide in and enter heaven. And somehow, Rei is excited enough at the prospect for his cock to be flushed red and hard, bobbing between his thighs, making Keito lick his lips. “You look...so incredible. Does that feel good?”

“Y…yeah. Fuck, really good.” Rei’s head lolls forward as he hastily wriggles a second finger inside. His breath escapes as a soft, ragged grunt as he spreads those slick fingers wider, stretching himself open, but still taking the time to spoil himself, just a little, just enough to make his cock twitch and drip between his legs when he curls his fingers almost, _almost_  right. “N…not as good as when your dick’s in me,” he pants out, blinking sweat out of his eyes when it drips down from his hairline. “B-but still fucking good.” 

“It’s like you’re addicted to it. Even though it’s only been a few times--you love it that much?”

For a moment, it’s almost enough to make Keito want to try being on the other side of it. It sounds incredible, to experience that dazzling pleasure, to see how it feels to be completely worked over, to be thoroughly taken care of by someone else’s capable hands, reduced only to feeling a cock drilling into...

Into his _asshole_. Yeah, no thanks.

Keito reaches down to grip Rei’s hips, fingers squeezing into the pale flesh, and guides him back. “You’re definitely ready, I think,” he breathes, letting the head of his cock bump gently against one cheek. “Now ride it like you promised, please.”

Rei almost whimpers from relief, his fingers sliding out quickly when Keito grabs for him. “Y-yeah, hold on,” he groans, reaching for the bottle of lube again and once it’s all over his hand, he reaches back, grabbing for Keito’s cock. It’s hot and heavy in his grasp, and Rei shivers as his hand drags up the length of it, leaving it slick when he shifts back and pulls it to his hole. 

Maybe he is addicted. So help him, nothing makes his mind _shut up_  like Keito fucking him, or even just kissing him—but this, a hot, hard dick, sliding up into him…that works faster than anything. The head sinks inside, and Rei gulps for a full breath before he gives into the urge to just sink down the rest of the way, rocking down onto that full, thick stretch until he can sit completely back in Keito’s lap, thighs trembling. “Fuck,” he breathes, his hands fumbling for a place to be, settling for resting over Keito’s hands on his hips as he squirms, wriggling down as his muscles clench involuntarily. “T…that’s in so fucking deep…nn, Keito, that feels good, right?”

It’s never been this _slick_ , and Keito knows instantly that his seconds of embarrassment at the drug store were incredibly well-spent.

He ruts up involuntarily, then on purpose, driving in hard and deep and hungry, desperate to be in harder and deeper. He leans up, pressing a sucking kiss against the back of Rei’s shoulder before his core gives out, and he flops back onto the futon, content to just watch Rei sink down onto all of him, taking the whole length of his cock until their hips are flush, until he just has to rut up to feel the tight stretch of Ei--Rei’s ass around him.

Keito bites into his palm to stifle the noise. “You feel so good,” he groans, fingertips sinking in deep to Rei’s hips. “I’m--ah, god, is it better, now that it’s so easy? You look like you _love_ it, tell me it’s good--”

“Really fucking good,” Rei pants out, feeling a few muscles straining in odd places to keep himself at that perfect angle when he grinds down. It’s almost impossible _not_  to just have all of Keito in him, all the time, which is both intensely satisfying and incredibly overwhelming all at once, leaving him to shiver and clench down helplessly when he rocks forward and back, milking how good it feels to be _full_.

His cock aches between his legs, precome beading further at the tip whenever he rocks up onto his knees, thighs trembling before Rei sinks back down again with a ragged huff of air when Keito’s cock slides back into him hard and deep. The amount of effort it takes to keep up that kind of a pace makes him lightheaded, but it’s worth it, even though he can feel sweat making their thighs stick together and make Keito’s grip slip against his skin. “F-fuck…god, Keito, you’re gonna make me come so hard like this,” Rei whimpers, bringing a hand up to his own mouth just to make _sure_  he doesn’t get too loud. 

A startled bark of a laugh rips its way out of Keito, fingers digging into Rei’s hips harder, deeper as he rolls his hips up and _in_ , in, in, in over and over again until he can’t breathe or think, until he can’t think of anything besides how excruciatingly good it feels to be in Rei to the root, driving in harder over and over and _over_.

Finally, he remembers the thing he thought was funny, and breathes out, “You’re gonna make _yourself_ come,” slamming up against Rei’s ass with every frantic thrust. “It’s you--you look so good, you’re--you’re the one making it so fucking _good_ \--”

Instead of arguing, Rei finds himself practically stuffing his fist into his mouth, trying to shut the fuck up when Keito is finally fucking him as hard as he’s been begging him to for awhile now, because it’s easy, because everything is so fucking slick and good, and keep his voice down is really easier said than done.

At least this way I can’t bite him, Rei frantically thinks, because that’s where his mind goes automatically when he tastes his own blood and whimpers around his fist when Keito shoves up into him hard enough to make him rock forward, scrabbling to brace against one of Keito’s knees when he grinds back down to meet him. His abdominal muscles tremble and clench, hollowing out around his hips when he struggles to keep working himself down onto Keito’s cock. Everything aches—every pull and tug on trembling muscles, his cock, too-hard and twitching between his legs, his back, his hand where he bites down, and Keito praising him when he fucks him is just the last straw. Rei comes with a broken, ragged gasp, choking on his own breath and spit and swearing he’s going to die because of it when he comes, trembling and taut with every jolt that makes his cock spill and drip over his stomach and thighs and the futon underneath.

Keito had thought there was no more beautiful sight than Rei riding his cock as if every grind down gives him deep personal joy and satisfaction, but he was wrong. Watching Rei _coming_ on his cock, shivering and writhing with every delighted rock down, gasping and covering his own mouth for fear of making too much aroused noise...that’s the best thing he’s ever seen.

Keito lunges up, pressing urgent, half-frantic kisses to every bit of skin he can reach, hands dragging over Rei’s thighs, belly, shoulders, lingering on his chest when he slams up the last few urgent times, burying himself so deep he can’t see any space between the two of them, groaning loud and long into the back of Rei’s shoulder when he finally spills in hot wet pulses. 

Slowly, his strength gives out, and he collapses back on the bed in a useless sprawl he’s been growing accustomed to, eyes rolling back in his head. “Next time we do that,” he breathes, chest heaving, “let’s make it somewhere soundproof, so you can scream.”

Rei slowly melts, which is less than helpful when he’s the one on top, and still doesn’t want to be the one that pulls away first. His legs and arms tremble, threatening to give out entirely as he wobbles, and finally slumps forward, at least able to brace onto his hands before his arms slide out from underneath him, too. “Uh huh,” he breathes, dazed, sated, until he sucks his own blood off of his lips and the scent of Keito’s is distracting all over again. The way Keito’s pulse is thudding, _thundering_ , is a too-enticing backdrop, and Rei huffs at the injustice, shutting his eyes to try and silence it. “You should just roll me over and shove my face into the futon and do it again.” There’s a pause before he adds, “Then maybe I won’t bite you.” 

Keito moves slowly, trying to force his limbs to work, and gives up. “That’s hard,” he complains. “Just get it over with, kill me while I don’t have the strength to move.”

Maybe one of those days Keito is going to realize that extending invitations like that isn’t very _smart_ —and today might just be that day.

Rei moves too-fast for his sluggish, aching limbs, off of Keito and prowling over him in the next second, eyes lidded and brilliantly red. “You make me feel like I’m fucking starving every single day,” he rasps, dragging his thumb along the thudding line of Keito’s jugular with precision. “I can’t stand it anymore.”

Keito gulps. “I, ah, may have made a mistake, I have so much to do today, lots of homework, my parents will miss me, I don’t want to die!”

“I’m hungry.” Rei’s face shoves into the side of Keito’s neck, and he breathes in deep as his lips part against Keito’s skin, mouthing a long, wet kiss there. “Keito…”

Keito starts to squirm away, only to find himself immobile, held in place by the sparkling hunger in those dark red eyes. “God,” he whispers, seeing his life (brief, uneventful, stupid) flash before his eyes, and his lips start tracing a Buddhist prayer so ancient it might as well not be in Japanese.

_Mom’s going to flip her lid_  is the last, absent thought Rei has as a stopgap between biting and pulling back, and it doesn’t do much. He _is_  hungry, and Keito smells amazing, fresh and sweet and strong, and if he just took one little drink, just one… 

Rei gives in, and bites.

His fangs slice so _easily_  through flesh that a muffled groan escapes from his tongue, but far more important is the sudden rush of blood filling his mouth. It’s bright and fragrant and nothing like the stuff he’s been bottlefed for years, nothing like the taste of another vampire that he’s survived on, and it makes him whimper and shudder with every mouthful. 

_Not too much, not too much!_  ‘Every’ mouthful ends up just being two before Rei jerks back, too paranoid, too afraid to gauge what’s really too much and what is way less than enough to keep going, but the taste is so heavy on his tongue that he sways, slithering down and lapping at the double trail of blood that already starts to dry on Keito’s neck. “ _So_  fucking good…nnn, Kei~to…”

Slowly, as the pounding of his heart starts to even off back to normal, Keito realizes through the haze of sensations coursing through him that he isn’t quite dead.

Or maybe he’s just dying slowly, and in incredible ecstasy. He shivers all over, body almost convulsing, dimly aware that he’s hard again so _soon_ , limbs heavy as molten lead. “How long,” he breathes, gulping at the air, “until it happens?” At least it doesn’t hurt, not like he’d expected. Don’t they say you never feel a mortal blow?

“Huh?” Rei blinks at him languidly, licking at a stray droplet of blood that clings to his lips. “You’re fine,” he says, brow furrowing, and he listens for a moment, just to make sure Keito’s pulse is normal. It is, if not slightly elevated because of…well. “You’re not gonna die. I just had a taste.” He runs his tongue over the tips of his fangs, shivering, his face flushed and ruddy. “You’re so…warm.I didn’t know fresh blood tasted like that…it makes me wanna drink again…”

Keito blinks, then blinks again, and a third time, trying to process the information. “Wait. I’m not going to die? But--but you bit me. You’re a vampire, aren’t you?”

“Vampires can drink without turning people.” Rei blinks at him again, his head tilting. “Or killing people. And you taste good, I could do it _more_ …”

Keito raises up on his elbows, more annoyed than relieved. “I feel like that’s the sort of thing you should tell people _before_ you bite them, especially if you happen to be dating them! So they don’t think they’re about to die!”

“I don’t know where you got the idea that you were going to die, though! I never said you were going to die! Did you really think I’d kill you? I thought I _just_  told you how much I liked you!”

“You’re very unclear about your nature! I didn’t know vampires could bite people without killing them, did I? And I _told_ you I didn’t want to die and you didn’t say anything helpful, just leaned in!”

“I was hungry!” Rei whines. “You can’t expect me to be able to explain things when I’m hungry!”

Keito flops back down to the pillow with a huff. “You’re lucky I feel like you sucked out my soul, or I’d keep scolding you. You’re also lucky I have a lot of practice with self-absorbed men with bad behavior.”

Rei’s expression shifts, annoyed, and he flops to the side, huffing. “Don’t compare me to your shitty friend. I was just hungry and you smelled really good and you got me all riled up. I won’t do it again if it bugs you that much.”

Keito glares at his stupid boyfriend, with his stupid good sweaty hair. “You’re being an idiot. I was trying to _tell_ you that I’d have let you do that a long time ago, but you never bothered telling me what it entailed.”

“I didn’t even wanna talk about it, because I’m technically still not allowed to. My mom’s gonna know I did and gonna kill me, so who’s the one that’s more likely to die, huh?”

“I don’t know! For all I know, you’ve got a slow-acting poison, and I’ll die tomorrow! And what’s with the erection?” Keito finally demands, gesturing down at his own unflagging, pointless arousal. “Is that a side effect, or what?”

“You’re not gonna die! It just makes you hard—and it’s a really mild paralytic or something, I dunno, you probably feel tingly.” Rei lifts his head, glowering. “If you hadn’t been such a drama queen about it, I would’ve sucked you off.”

Keito’s eyes shoot daggers, but damn if that isn’t a very convincing argument. “You...you can bite me again, if you suck me off,” he mutters. “You have more color in your cheeks than usual. It’s a good look.”

Rei gingerly lifts a hand to his own face, poking at his cheek. His skin does feel warm, even to him, which is odd. “…I wanna drink from your thigh.” 

That thought makes Keito suck in a breath, and the next thought-- _no one would be able to see_ \--is a good one. He nods, and lets his legs splay out, in a way that’s probably far more awkward than sexy. “Y-yeah. Go on.” It hadn’t hurt before, except for a bright sudden pinprick, so it’s unlikely to hurt now.

Rei moves before he thinks, already between Keito’s legs before he can stop himself. “You’re such a bad influence,” he sighs, mouthing kisses up from Keito’s knee to the inside of his thigh, feeling the heat of his pulse, the heady, distracting scent of it, and he sucks just above the artery, shivering at how it thuds underneath his tongue. “I’m not gonna be able to stop if you let me keep doing this.”

It takes more control this time to bite and be _careful_. The taste washes over his tongue and Rei groans, his fingers trembling as he grabs at Keito’s hips to ground himself. He only allows himself two, three more swallows before he pulls back, panting shallowly, blood staining his lips. “You taste _so_  fucking good, it’s not _fair_.”

The bite to his thigh is far more about _sensation_ than the one to his neck had been, making Keito’s head loll back, dragging a weak thready moan from his lips. The first time, he’d been too concerned with believing he was about to die, with saying his last rites, to notice how delicious it feels when Rei’s mouth is on him, teeth sinking _in_ in the most illicit penetration he can imagine. 

“God,” he breathes, hands flexing and unclenching on the thin futon, feeling his cock tremble and start to drip without any extra stimulation. “You really....are a predator, aren’t you?”

“Kinda comes with the territory,” Rei says with a breathless laugh, his tongue dragging over the twin marks on Keito’s thigh, licking up the last bit of blood that drips from there. “It feels good, right?” he eagerly presses, mouthing his way up to Keito’s cock, where his tongue immediately has to swipe over the tip for a taste. The bitter, salty tang of it mixes with the sweetness of blood still on his tongue, and Rei huffs out a breath through his nose, parting his lips to draw the head of Keito’s cock into his mouth.

Keito feels like he’d usually be thrusting up, reaching up to grab at Rei’s hair and force him down, but the sweet languid press of the venom into his blood keeps him still, lazing down without the slightest desire to move or become an active participant. It’s a different experience from any sex he’s had before, but not an altogether unpleasant one, just letting Rei do whatever he wants, letting him drag little breathy grunts and gasps from his lips. “Nice,” he breathes, the understatement of the century in response to that sweet wet hot suction.

Having this much power to just…do whatever he wants…that’s _nice_. Rei shoves his hair back out of his face, and laps and sucks at the head of Keito’s cock, milking every single drop that he can from it before he swallows him down completely. 

When he’s flushed and _fed_ , having a dick in his mouth is even _better._  He grabs one of Keito’s hands, easing it to his hair, encouraging him to grab and pull as much as he wants (as much as he can, heh) when Keito’s cock slides down his throat, dripping over his tongue, so hard that it has to be painful.

Maybe it’s just because Rei hasn’t done this before, but Keito is fairly certain there are some gaps missing in his ideas of what the men he’s bitten are capable of. For example, he seems to think that Rei is capable of putting his hands on someone’s head, when his own just fall limply down, brushing Rei’s locks feebly on the way down before thumping to the floor. “I think....I’m going to come soon,” he slurs, eyes rolling back into his head, dimly aware of how fuzzy his voice sounds.

Huh. Guess it’s more effective than he thought. Rei doesn’t hate that, though he does glance up through his lashes for a moment, just making _sure_  Keito is still conscious. When it’s clear that he is, Rei shrugs it off, and pulls off of his cock with a slick pop. “Mmn, I’ll drink all that up, too,” he reassures him with a breathless little laugh, and sucks him down, groaning as Keito’s cock rubs down the length of his tongue, drips down his throat. 

It’s the strangest Keito has ever felt, and he feels every tensing of his muscles, almost one by one, as he floats in an odd dream-state, core muscles and thighs tensing, releasing, tensing again, and then the wave breaks over him, makes him shudder and writhe as he spills down Rei’s throat. 

He opens his mouth to say something, but all that comes out is a garbled babbling groan, not words by a long shot, before he gives up on speech entirely.

Like this, it’s incredibly easy to just swallow all of Keito down, easy, fluid laves of his tongue making it easy to suck him down and not miss a single drop. He draws back with a last lick, wiping his mouth before he slithers his way back up Keito’s body, mouthing kisses to the side of his neck where he’d bit down before. “Good, yeah?” he breathes. “Mnn, Keito, I promise I won’t bite too much next time, twice was probably a little…”

“As if you know.” Keito tries to lift a hand to pull off his fogging glasses, but it hangs limply, uselessly at his side, flopped against the ground. “You don’t know...anything. Come here, kiss me.”

Gently, Rei tugs Keito’s glasses off of his face and sets them aside before doing as he’s told. He grabs Keito’s face up into his hands as he leans down to kiss him thoroughly, wondering bemusedly at how much of the taste of blood and semen Keito in particular can separate. “I can guess that it was too much,” he lowly teases, his fangs lightly catching against Keito’s lower lip. “You’re all floppy.” 

“It always gets that way after you suck it,” Keito responds tartly, swiping his tongue over his lips. “Ah, disgusting. Mmh, you’ll just have to be in charge of all the cuddling this time as well. I’m in your care.”

“It’s _your_ blood and _your_ come, don’t call it gross,” Rei complains, and flops to the side himself, which is much easier to wrap all four limbs around Keito and snuggle up close. “You can’t escape cuddling like this now. Lucky me.” 

“The true goal of vampires,” Keito says, muffling his voice into one of Rei’s arms. “To render their victims immobile and force intensive cuddles. Truly, the cruelest of predators.” At least he isn’t dead, the way he’d genuinely expected to be by now. All things considered, this meeting of the Music Club could have had a _worse_ ending.

~

The music club room has to be cleaned once in awhile, which means other locations are needed.

Keito’s house is nice, but not private at all. That’s why with only some hesitation, Rei drags Keito to his house for ‘club activities’ after school. It’s further away, and a ten minute walk from Kichijouji station, and even in the late afternoon sun, Rei feels like he’s melting underneath his parasol. 

“Well,” he says, stepping onto the pathway around his family’s pair of cars. “Here we are.” The house stands out in the neighborhood as being one of the few absolutely _covered_ in ivy, with every flower bed stuffed full of the stuff as well, plus or minus less-than-perfectly trimmed bushes and flowers. It looks overgrown on purpose if anything, and the enormous wooden front door unlocks with a keypad, not a normal key. “I’ll flip on a light for you once we get to my room, but just stay close to me, okay?” 

Keito tries to keep his mouth closed, but can’t stop himself from staring, eyes wide as they rake over a house that doesn’t appear to realize it’s within the confines of Tokyo’s metropolitan area. On some level, he’d never believed that Rei was an _actual_ vampire--sure, there had been the biting, and it had seemed like venom was involved, but he could have just been lightheaded, and maybe Rei is just kinky. 

The house, though...

The house is utterly black inside, all windows covered by blackout curtains, and Keito fumbles for Rei’s hand, ducking on instinct, utterly convinced that he’s about to be dive-bombed by a bat or something. “You-- _do_ you have bats?” he asks, nervously patting at his own head.

Rei sighs heavily, as if this is something that has _long_ been a topic of contention. “I _want_ a pet bat,” he complains, squeezing Keito’s hand. “But my mom won’t let me have one. She says they’re dirty--”

“They are, dear.” 

A small lamp flips on, revealing a woman that absolutely can’t be a day past her late twenties, early thirties, sprawled across a chaise lounge that looks like it came straight from the Victorian era. Her _extremely_ lowcut nightgown does little to hide any of her starkly pale skin, considering it’s mostly transparent, anyway, and probably more effective at that task is the tumble of long, black waves that trail down her shoulders and back. “Who’s this?” she asks, drumming long, painted red nails against the arm of the chaise, her brilliantly red eyes fixated upon Keito immediately.

Rei’s lips purse. “My frend,” he says, trying to subtly push Keito behind him. “I didn’t know you’d be awake, Mom--”

“Today’s not a day for _work_.” Sakuma Airi hauls herself up from the chaise, immediately gliding over. “Your _friend_ , hmm?” One pale hand immediately curls around Keito’s arm, and tightens as she smiles. “He smells like that night you came home after feeding.”

On the scale of ‘normal and fine’ to ‘absolutely not okay,’ hearing a predatory voice out of the darkness while long nails squeeze his arm and his boyfriend is obviously trying to hide him rates a fervent ‘get me out of here.’ 

Keito tries to pull back, but the grip is powerful, and he’s pretty sure he just winds up bruising himself more, teeth gritted. Politeness takes over when he’s nervous, and he nods stiffly to the darkness, not too deeply for fear of exposing his neck (a fear he considers extremely healthy, under the circumstances. “Ah, thank you for the hospitality. I’m Hasumi Keito.”

Are his hands sweating? Yes, they’re sweating, so he lays them flat on his thighs, letting his school trousers absorb some of the moisture.

“Hehhh, _Keito-kun?_ Isn’t that the name of your pet, Rei-chan?” his mother wheedles, her fingers tightening their grasp. “You should let me have a taste. It must be good if you went against your dear mother’s wishes--”

“Moooom, quit it, you’re freaking him out,” Rei whines, grabbing Keito’s arm and hauling him close again. In an act of irritation, he flips on the main light to the room, even though it hurts his eyes to flood the area with light so abruptly. His mother doesn’t as much as flinch, but it at least should take away the edge of the unknown a _little_ for Keito. “We’re just going to my room to practice!”

“You can’t bring humans home and not expect me to want to drink a little,” Airi sighs, latching herself to Keito’s arms, batting her long eyelashes up at him. She’s only a few centimeters shorter, but she does a very good job of clinging to him. “Keito-kun, I’m huuungry...is my son enough for you? Or do you need someone _experienced_ to show you what it feels like to be a proper meal?” 

Keito’s heart thunders in his chest, and his mouth opens and shuts a few times, but the shock is too much, and his brain short-circuits. His eyes glaze over, pupils tightened to pinpricks at the sudden startling reality of this buxom, sensual woman grabbing at him and threatening him with _experience_ , until everything fades away in fizzling sparks, leaving him standing as still as a statue in a dead faint.

“Mom, look what you did.”

“ _I_ did this? Maybe you needed to pick a man with a bit more...”

“I hate you so much,” Rei groans, grabbing Keito away from her and giving him a shake. 

“How dare you talk to your mother like that, you ungrateful child.” She huffs, flouncing away again to the couch and collapsing down onto it in a heap. “This is why you’ll never amount to anything! Ritsu! Ritsu, my beautiful darling, where are youuuu--”

Rei unhappily grabs Keito and tosses him over his shoulder when shaking him clearly does nothing to wake him up and bring him back from the dead. “Why do you have to be like this,” he grumbles, stalking up the stairs. “Maybe I should’ve just let her _eat you._ ”

Once his body starts to signal _safety_ instead of _impending trauma_ , Keito starts to blink, waking up a little with a shuddering breath. They appear to be in Rei’s room, or so he guesses from all of the music-themed decorations, and he relaxes marginally, shaking his head to clear it. “Sorry,” he says, rubbing at his temples. “I just--that woman, your mother? She’s too much, far too much. At least no one at my house tried to eat you.”

Rei kicks open the door and dumps Keito down onto his bed. “Yeah, that’s my mom,” he mutters, flipping on another light that isn’t just a nightlight so that Keito can navigate without dying. “Fuck her. I didn’t know she’d do that, I’m really fucking sorry. You’re not her favorite blood type, though, so you’re lucky she didn’t just chomp down.”

Keito flops onto the bed, mentally comparing it to Eichi’s, the only other Western-style bed he’s spent a significant amount of time in. This one is at least as comfortable, though perhaps with a little less spring, a little closer to the floor? Whatever, he knows nothing about this style of furniture, just enough to know that Rei’s family is certainly wealthy enough to rival the Tenshouins for material comfort, if not liquid assets. 

He blinks in the sudden light, pushing up his glasses and looking warily towards the door. “Will she come in here? I’d prefer not to faint again.”

“She’ll do whatever she wants,” Rei unhappily says. “Maybe if I lock us both in my coffin, she’ll leave us alone.” 

“You don’t _seriously_ have a--”

Keito bites his tongue, eyes landing on the vaguely sinister shape in the corner. “Never mind. Of course you really have a coffin.”

“Oh, yeah,” Rei excitedly says, walking over to it and hauling the lid off in short order. “It’s a lot nicer than my bed. You should hop in with me, you’ll see.” 

Keito opens his mouth to protest, then shrugs. “Sure. How much worse than the rest of this could it be?”

Surprisingly, the coffin _is_ rather nice, and Keito lowers himself into it awkwardly, elbows and knees digging into the plush carpeting. “This seems wrong,” he complains. “Everyone I know is cremated.”

“My mom’s _real_ into the Western stuff.” Rei crawls in after him, snuggling down into the velvet next to Keito with a happy sigh. “I’d show you more of our house, but if she’s prowling around, that’s probably a bad idea...ahh, at least my dad isn’t home, he’s so nosy.” 

“Your mother is like _that_ , and you think your father is the nosy one?” Keito shudders, thunking his head into Rei’s shoulder in what he hopes is an affectionate gesture and not an invitation to fight. Body language is hard. “How the hell did you grow up somewhat normal?”

Rei brightens somewhat, even as he winds all four limbs around Keito. “Keito thinks I’m normal~” he sighs happily. “Maybe it’s because I spent all my time raising my little brother instead of associating with our parents. _He’s_ the favorite, I’m the reject, you see.”

“I didn’t know you had a little brother.” Keito huffs, letting himself be thoroughly grabbed at, not sure how to reciprocate in terms of cuddling and just letting Rei run wild. “I can’t imagine having a big brother like you. Mine is bad enough.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rei grumps, nuzzling his face into Keito’s neck as if putting enough of his scent on him will deter anyone else in his household from coming close. “I’m a _great_ big brother. Ritsu’s one year younger than me, and _so_ cute. He plays the violin and piano, too, but he goes to another school...he didn’t want to go to the same middle school as me for some reason.” 

“I wonder why,” Keito says dryly. “Does that mean he’s the same age as me? I find it hard to imagine what he’s like, I suppose. Normal lie you, or strange like your parents? Your mother is so...predatory.”

“I know, I can’t figure out why he wouldn’t want to go to the same school as me, either.” It’s said with complete seriousness. “I guess if you think I’m normal, then you’d probably think he was weird...but he’s so cute! Though he picks on me about having a boyfriend sometimes, which is just honestly not fair...”

“Nonsense, it’s the right of a little brother to pick on a big brother. God-given, since the beginning of time.” Keito blinks, then just lets his eyes shut, abandoning the quest for his glasses. “No offense, but I hope they never have to clean the music club room again. Your house is terrifying, and we’re in a coffin.”

“My coffin is awesome,” Rei defensively says. “And at least in my house we don’t have to _whisper_ if we wanna do it. I mean,” he adds reluctantly, “I guess we probably need to pull the lid shut if we wanna make out because otherwise we might get interrupted, but that’s just because everyone will smell your pulse going up. Yours gets _really_ fast when we do stuff like that.” 

Keito raises a hand defensively to his neck, where he can hardly feel a pulse. “They can smell it? Rei, this house is _creepy_. You can’t be serious about preferring to be here than to be in a lovely open sweet-smelling temple.”

“Keito, we literally had to stop doing it because four of those shrine maiden things sat outside of your window for an hour, trying to figure out how to ask for my phone number.” Rei stares at him, deadpan. “You know _I_ can smell your pulse, right?” 

“Can you? What...” Keito blinks, a little startled by the revelation, not sure how he feels about that information. “What do I smell like, to a vampire? Is it something about me--am I special, like that girl in Twilight?”

“Uhhh...I don’t even know what you’re talking about, but you just smell good?” Rei shrugs helplessly. “Compared to a lot of humans, your blood is really clean? Because of all the green tea, I guess. And you smell like type A, which is kinda...sharp, almost? Like peppermints, if I had to pick a human candy...” 

“And all humans have a taste? Just different ones?” Keito hesitates, then confesses, “When you first told me you were a vampire, I thought you were just being an idiot. Like some leftover chuunibiyou. But seeing this house--seeing your _mother_ \--”

Rei grimaces. “Yeah. Yeah, I know. She’s...” He sighs, then shrugs, flopping over and dragging Keito closer to him in the process. “She’s _so_ old. She doesn’t know how to even fake normal. The only reason she settled down at all is because she got knocked up.” He fidgets, scuffing his toes against the velvet of the coffin. “It’s easier to just tell people you’re a vampire, then no one believes you are one. They just think you’re a chuunibiyou, like you said.”

Keito is about to object--why say anything at all? Why draw attention to yourself? Why make noise, misbehave, if you just want to lay low?--but it makes sense, he supposes. If Rei hadn’t said those things, Keito would have been fascinated with the mystery of those swirling red eyes, the pale skin, the way Rei avoids sunlight and speaks so strangely. When Rei had deadpanned that he was a vampire, however, he’d written the idea off as absurd. “I suppose that makes sense. Is she going to make you...whatever your family does, propagate?”

“Ugh. I mean. There are two ways to make more vampires...sort of.” Absently, Rei hooks his fingers into the waistband of Keito’s trousers, content with just keeping them there for the moment. “Vampires _can_ fuck humans and have kids like that...but it’s pretty rare, and ill-advised. It’s only the real powerful vampires that can do it, anyway. My mom ended up like that, and that’s why I’m here.” _That should tell you all you need to know about my mom,_ goes unspoken. “The other way is like...the way books and movies and shit tell you, by turning normal humans into vampires. Either way, I’m definitely _not_ sleeping with a girl. That’s Ritsu’s job, if she wants grandchildren.” 

Keito listens, but something turns over in his stomach, low and heated and fluttering. Part of it is arousal, a natural reaction to Rei’s hands on him...

But some of it is fear.

“If your mother...” His voice sounds a little bit small, and he flushes at how cowardly he sounds. “If she doesn’t like me...am I going to be safe? Or is she going to hunt me?”

Rei blinks, lifting his head to look up at Keito’s face. “Huh? Why would she...” _I mean, that’s fair_ , a little voice in his head points out, and Rei hopes that flicker of uncertainty doesn’t show on his face. “She’s not going to hunt you,” he hastens to say instead. “She won’t. You’re not even the kind of blood she likes to drink, she wouldn’t...she honestly wouldn’t even waste her time, she was just picking on you earlier.” He laughs nervously. “You’re lucky you’re not like Isara, Ritsu’s boyfriend. _He’s_ type O.”

“What does she do to him?” Keito hopes his voice comes out neutral, not terrified. Rei’s hesitation had told him far more than his words, and he’s not so naive as to think that such a woman would just stand by if, for example, they were no longer dating. _There’s an incentive to be faithful_ , he thinks grimly.

“...Steal a drink or two?” Rei answers hesitantly. “That’s it, as far as I know. Ritsu gets really, ah, possessive over him.” There have been actual fights, but mentioning that in great detail isn’t going to make Keito feel better...probably. Rei isn’t entirely sure he could end up with fangs and claws out like Ritsu does, ready to fucking _hurt_ someone, even if it was their mother. 

“Ah. Well.” Keito clears his throat, looking anywhere but at Rei. “Just as well that I’m not to her taste.” Not that Rei had _said_ that he’d get possessive. In fact, he’d sounded like he found it weird. Would he just stand to the side if his mother pushed the issue, and let her do as she wished? Ah, that’s a lot of nerves he’s feeling for something that isn’t going to happen. 

To distract himself more than anything, Keito shifts, nuzzling into Rei’s neck and placing soft kisses over the skin, down to his collarbone, up to his ear. “This is what we came here for, isn’t it?”

Yes, good, a _subject_ change--even if the subject won’t leave his mind, because now he’s worried about it. Even still, Rei’s hands slip lower, curling around the curve of Keito’s ass to tug him closer. “Mmn. I’m not gonna let her hurt you,” he quietly promises, letting his head loll back beneath the touch of Keito’s mouth. “Just let me handle it, okay?” 

Telling Keito not to worry is a bit fruitless, but at least Rei is making an attempt, and Keito can respect that. He nods, mouthing over the soft skin, then slinking down to drag lips and tongue over Rei’s chest, sucking on a nipple, toying with it with his teeth and tongue to his own evident amusement. “I like making you shiver,” he murmurs, because that’s probably better than _how can I stop worrying when your mother is a horror movie searching for a plucky young protagonist?_

“Y-you’re good at it,” Rei rasps, his eyes fluttering and toes curling as he squirms underneath the heat of Keito’s mouth. A hand snakes right back up, fisting into Keito’s hair, hoping that’s enough to keep him in place for at least a moment. “Fuck, I...I should close the coffin lid or something, so no one bothers us...” Moving, though, sounds pretty fucking lame. 

Keito reaches up, grabs the latch, heaves, and stares in annoyance when nothing moves. “Why is it so heavy?” he grumbles. “Is it locked into place?”

“...It’s...yeah, y’know what, it’s kinda tricky.” Rei shifts, stretching an arm up to pull it shut one-handedly. 

~

“Rei. It’s time for school, get up.”

In his defense, Keito _had_ attempted to get up and leave by himself. He’d gotten dressed (in yesterday’s clothes, but maybe it will be good for his too-good-boy reputation), straightened his hair, and found his glasses, then headed out of Rei’s coffin (lifting the lid had been nigh impossible, but he’d done it) into the common room...

Only to find it so dark that he’d promptly tripped over the furniture, been unable to find a light, and been near-paralyzed with the fear that each thump and creak is Rei’s mother coming to get him, descending on batlike wings. He’d whimpered, scrambling in the blackness to find his way back into Rei’s room, only barely managing it, breaking a couple of nails on the carpet in the process before finally getting back inside, shutting the door firmly behind him. 

Hopefully, he isn’t breathing _too_ hard from his fear when he shakes Rei awake, fingers ungentle on his shoulder. “You’re going to be late for school.”

Waking up is easier said than done on any given day, and waking up on _time_ is something else entirely. Rei groans at the touch, and instead of rising, he grabs for Keito with needy fingers, dragging him down. “Don’t care,” he yawns, nuzzling his face into Keito’s neck. “Mnnn, Keito. Keito, we could skip school...stay here all day...ahh, your blood is pumping so fast, it’s making me hungry.”

Keito shoves at his stupid delinquent vampire (cute) boyfriend, getting a palm into his face and pushing. “I have a speech to give in Japanese today, I can’t miss it or be late--cease your wandering hands, you’ve got to get up!”

“At least let me have breakfast,” Rei whines, shoving his face into Keito’s hand and mouthing a kiss to his wrist, which promptly turns to a nibble. “I’m _hungry_ , you wore me out last night.” 

Keito huffs, then hops up onto the coffin, presenting the inside of his elbow. “A quick taste,” he says sternly, not sure when he got so tolerant. “But then you’ve got to help me through the house, I was going to leave you sleeping and leave quietly, but I got lost.”

“Ahh, that’s why you were so riled up...” Rei sleepily notes, still basically in a stupor as he grabs for Keito’s arm, nuzzling his way up it. “My mom’s not going to be awake, so she won’t bother us. She’s got a real strict schedule.” Another stifled yawn, and he bites down, shivering from the satisfaction in just biting, even before the taste of Keito’s blood makes it to his tongue.

He’s sleepy, and not entirely coordinated about it, but he manages to drink a few gulps without spilling too much down his chin. Rei draws back with a content sigh, licking at his blood-stained lips and flopping back down into his coffin. “You’re so _good_ , Keito...”

Keito’s blood pounds in his ears, and he staggers when he tries to get up, sagging against the coffin. “Now you’re in charge,” he mumbles, one hand lashing out to cling to Rei’s arm. “You’ve got to...take care of me, all right?”

“Mm, mm, I got you,” Rei agrees with another yawn, hauling himself to his feet and grabbing Keito’s hand to pull him upright. “Lemme just...ugh, my shirt’s around here somewhere, gimme a sec.”

He’s _probably_ got an extra blazer in his school locker, so he doesn’t bother with that when it comes to getting dressed; a sweater tossed over his button-down is good enough. Rei throws his violin case over one shoulder, and his school bag after that, before pulling Keito towards the door. “Just hold onto me, I can see in the dark,” he reassures him. “You got all your stuff?” 

“Yes, yes, I have everything.” Keito blinks owlishly, stumbling a little in Rei’s hold, clinging even tighter because of it. “Nnh, why don’t you all just turn on the lights? Isn’t that more sensible? I know you’re vampires, but if you’re going to go to _school_ , shouldn’t you get used to the light?”

“If our own house isn’t going to cater to us even a little, what’s the point?” Rei complains, guiding Keito to the stairs, and then just opting to heft him up into one arm and carry him down them so he doesn’t break a leg. “We aren’t going to get _used_ to the light, anyway. It saps our energy no matter what, and it fucking sucks, but we make do.” He grins, pinching Keito’s thigh gently when he sets him down. “Are you so immune to me biting you now that you aren’t even gonna talk about how hard your dick is?” 

“I...I wasn’t sure that talking about it was a good idea,” Keito splutters, “when we don’t have time for you to _do_ something about it, bastard. The least you could do is offer to take care of it back in your room!”

“Ehhh, this way is funnier, I bet.” The wan light of a cell phone flicks on, lending a ghostly illumination to the pale face of Sakuma Ritsu, crunching his way through a bowl of cereal at the kitchen table. Red eyes flick downward, lingering on the front of Keito’s trousers. “Yeah, funnier. You did a bad thing, Onii-chan. Mom’s gonna eat him.”

“He’s not Mom’s type!” Rei immediately blurts out as a retort, shoving Keito reflexively behind himself before his brain finishes connecting the dots and calming down because it’s Ritsu, _just_ Ritsu. He exhales a long, relieved sigh, and tries to calm the thudding of his own pulse. “Keito, this is my cute little brother. Ritsu, you’ve gotta be nice.”

“Mm, I do?” Ritsu tips back in his chair, yawning hugely between bites. “Maa~kun is late to get me for school, so he’s out with his other friends, so I’m in a bad mood.”

Keito bows, not sure what else to do, and looks uncertainly at Rei. “Nice to meet you.”

Ritsu waves a hand. “You don’t have to get formal, I’m not Dad. Heh, has Dad met him yet?”

“No, and that’s really not necessary,” Rei firmly says, grabbing Keito’s hand reflexively. “You know Dad doesn’t care. Ritsu, this is why you should go to the same school as me--then we could walk together, and you wouldn’t have to wait around for Isara every day--”

“Yeah, but then I’d be at the same school as you,” Ritsu teases, sticking his tongue out. He looks at Keito again, cocking his head. “Dad would care about this one. Mom really wants him, right? Dad definitely cares about that.”

Keito feels the hair on the back of his neck prickle, and he tugs at Rei’s hand, nerves starting to build again. “Can’t we go? Ah, Ritsu-kun, do you want us to walk you to school?”

Ritsu slumps down in his chair, like someone has removed his batteries. “Nah. If Maa~kun doesn’t come, I’ll just die here.”

“Mom doesn’t want him, Mom’s just being...the way she is,” Rei mutters, trying not to think about how his mom _does_ have a tendency to like two kinds of guys--type O blood, and nerdy businessmen-types. Keito’s one of those, damn it. He winces, and holds Keito’s hand tightly. “C’mon, Ritsu, you’re not allowed to die here. I’ve got a cute parasol for you, we can walk together, it’ll be fun.”

“I don’t want to walk with your parasol, the last one you tried to give me had little feet all over it, but you couldn’t tell me where the bodies went. That’s messed up.”

Rei’s hand’s squeeze feels a lot less like comfort and a lot more like urgent nerves, and Keito tries not to feel nervous about it. That doesn’t stop him from thinking every shadow in the already-dark room is Rei’s mother, coming to tear him apart with long long nails and longer teeth.

“This one has little kitties on it! Riiiitsuuu, c’mon, I know you use the cute ones when I’m not looking, why can’t you do it when I can get a picture?” Keito’s pulse is _going_ , and Rei sucks in a sharp breath, his gaze flicking away from Ritsu for a moment. “Keito, can you like…not?” 

Keito blinks, looking up, then down at himself, trying to figure out what he’d been doing. In confusion, he lets go of Rei’s hand, certain that he must have been squeezing too tightly. “Sorry. I’ll just--” Unwilling to relinquish any contact, he grabs Rei’s sleeve instead.

Ritsu yawns again, slumping sideways a bit. “You should go, Onii-chan. Leave the parasol by the door, I _might_ bring it if Maa~kun comes to pick me up.”

At least _Ritsu_  isn’t being gross and predatory. Rei heaves a sigh and nods, giving up, and simply switches his grip to grab Keito’s hand again as he pulls him to the door. “Fine, fine. Make sure you actually _go_  to class, though; you have to go to the same high school as me eventually!”

He leaves the one parasol by the door, takes another with him, and the daylight as soon as he steps outside makes him cringe and immediately huddle underneath it. “Sorry,” he breathes, shutting his eyes. “When you get that nervous, your blood—I can smell it even more. It’s distracting. Ahh, maybe I’m just getting too used to drinking from you, I should cut back…” 

Keito feels like he could bathe in the sunlight--the safe, _protective_ sunlight, that Rei’s mother probably won’t want to go out in. “I’m fine with you cutting back,” he says frankly. “I definitely don’t want you to get addicted, and honestly, my physical condition is poor enough even _with_ all my blood.”

“Bullshit, you’re healthy.” Rei sags to the side, thumping his shoulder into Keito’s. “I _barely_  drink anything. Yeah, I definitely can’t cut back, I’m an addict and there’s no cure.” 

“Disgusting. Your lack of moral fiber will be your undoing, foul creature of the night.”

“I mean, that’s fair. But you’re the one that gets hard whenever I bite you and then _insists_  on a blowjob, sooo…”

“It’s a physical reaction! It isn’t my fault that a blowjob is the easiest way for you to take care of it when I’m paralyzed!”

“Y’know,” Rei drawls, “you’re _supposed_  to be kinda immune to that stuff by now, or at least, not as affected. Maybe one of these days you can just fuck me with it instead of pretending to be _extra_  floppy and useless after I take a little sip from your thigh and just happen to already to be on my knees.”

Keito sniffs, nose in the air, refusing to acknowledge anything of the sort. “As if you know what you’re talking about. Obviously, a blowjob is the _only_ thing appropriate for this situation. If you want to keep drinking from my veins, you can keep drinking from my cock, too.”

“Cool, I’ll go for the vein in your dick next time, then.”

“Congratulations, you’ve lost all blood privileges. You’re going to need to give me a serious foot massage to make it up to me.”

“Only if you let me paint your toenails first. And yeah, it’s gotta be black.” 

“But...everyone will see when I wear geta...”

“Sounds rough. C’mon, you’ll look cute, I can do your nails so they match mine, too.”

“Absolutely not, my father will have me doing penance until I’m a grandfather.”

“Just blame it on your shitty music club captain. Tell him it’s a requirement, because I’m a gross delinquent or something.”

“You seem to think my father would allow me to be in a club with someone who is a gross delinquent, which is almost hilarious.”

“Wait, wait, what have you told him about me, then?” Rei says with a laugh, giving Keito’s side a pinch. “That I’m a fine, upstanding gentleman that plays only classical music or something?” 

Keito stares at Rei in evident incomprehension. “You think I’ve told my parents? About _you_?”

Rei blinks at him slowly from underneath the shadow of his parasol. “I figured you at least told them about club activities. Who _else_  do they think is teaching you shamisen?” 

“You mean, admit to my parents that I’m spending time studying something that won’t get me into a top tier school, that has nothing to do with religion or history or Japanese and is therefore just taking time away from my duties at the temple?” Keito shakes his head, unable to comprehend parents that would accept such a thing. “I might as well just tell them I got a tutor to teach me to waste time.”

Rei’s mouth opens, then shuts, and he rolls his shoulders as if that’ll make the indirect sting of those words slide off of his back. “’s not like you can’t get into Todai on a music scholarship or anything,” he mutters. “But whatever, yeah, totally a waste of time.”

Keito would have to be far more oblivious than he is to fail to notice the hurt in those words. He frowns, re-examining his own words, then grimaces. “ _I_ don’t think it’s a waste of time,” he says with a sigh. “I just...I know how they are. They live very narrow lives. Rei, they don’t even want me to _attend_ high school.”

That softens the blow (somewhat). Mentally, Rei scolds himself for being too fucking sensitive as per usual; if he’s not used to the way Keito phrases things by now, geez… “Parents are fucking lame,” he murmurs, shrugging his violin case up onto his shoulder more securely. “You’re too smart to not get into a top four school, and you actually _like_  school, so…” 

“But I don’t want to. I want to go to Yumenosaki.” Keito hesitates, then bumps Rei’s shoulder with his own, saying softly, “For...slightly different reasons than before.”

Rei scoffs at that even as he glances aside, his face hotter for more reasons than just the sun changing direction on them. “Like you aren’t just gonna break up with me the second I graduate.”

Keito stops walking, startled, though not enough to faint, not yet. “You think that?” he asks, brow furrowed.

“You’re the one that said ‘let’s date until you graduate’ when you asked me out, or something like that.” Rei shrugs, glancing at his feet. “I mean, hell, if you broke up with me after my mom tried to flirt with you _and_  eat you, I wouldn’t be surprised at all.”

Keito’s mouth works for a minute, trying to give him words, but they keep getting lost between brain and lips. He looks away, catching sight of the spire of their school in the distance, glinting in the morning sun. “I...I don’t really remember saying that,” he admits. “But if you want to break up, I...I don’t know how to stop you. But if I’ve committed to this, I accept it.”

“W-what? No, ugh, dammit, I don’t wanna break up. Fuck, sorry, I’m bad at this.” Rei exhales a long breath, glancing up through the filtered shade of his parasol, and tries not to wince and shrink underneath the sun that somehow gets through. “I thought you were dating me because you couldn’t date your friend,” he admits. “And I was cool with that because I…well. No one else would date me, and you were cute and would listen to me talk about music, so why not? But uh, joke’s on me, I guess. I like you a lot.” 

“I...” Ah, this is talk about feelings. Keito looks away, wishing he had some prop to play with like Rei does, some way to keep himself from looking quite as stupid and awkward as he’s certain he does, and he winds up fiddling with the strap on his bag. How the hell do people do this without having heart attacks?

“I’m not going to pretend I don’t have feelings for him,” he says, awkward and uncomfortable, hating everything about his life that has led him to have this conversation. “But I didn’t ask you out as some kind of...some kind of _practice_ , Rei. Ah, I suppose I did ask you out in a vaguely...fatalistic way? But only because that’s who I am, that’s the sort of person I am, all I know is death and being awkward and old prayers.”

“Well, yeah, but, same though, basically? Except replace old prayers with violin.” Rei rubs at the back of his neck, shrugging helplessly. “You know you’re like, the only person I wanna hang out with, right? I’ve kinda put all my eggs in one basket here, even though I know you’ve still got a thing for your shitty friend, I…I was just hoping you’d say you liked _me_  at some point. Even just a little. Everyone else really sucks.” 

Keito blinks, trying to make that make sense, because--no, he couldn’t have, that doesn’t make any--he _wouldn’t_ have--

Had he?

He swallows, mouth dry, and looks down at his feet. “I can’t believe I haven’t told you I like you. I do. A...quite a bit. I’m just very bad at saying things like this. But...” He looks up, uncomfortable and hoping this comes across better than it sounds to his own ears. “I like you, Rei. A lot.”

Relief spreads all the way down to Rei’s toes, and he sags a little, for once because of reasons that don’t have to do with the sun melting him. “I-it’s not like you have to say it all the time,” he hastens to say, glancing away as his face heats up. “Just…yeah. I’m really glad. Sorry, I know it’s fucking dumb and I should be able to just _tell_ , but I suck at it.” 

“Good.” Keito sniffs, then grabs Rei’s hand again, setting off for school, determined not to let Rei see him blush. “Then for once, you aren’t showing me up by being far better than me at everything.”

“Huh?” Rei blinks, trailing at Keito’s heels as he lets himself be pulled along, contently twining their fingers together. “I’m definitely not better at most things. Math. Classics. Homework…”

“But you’re far better at the only thing that means anything to you,” Keito dryly points out. “So how can anyone possibly compete?”

“But I don’t wanna compete with you. I just wanna make out with you.” 

Keito casts a glance back over his shoulder, then suggests, “You should play violin for me. At school, during music time. I’ve never heard you really play.”

Rei thinks about that, trying to recount a few of the times he’s played seriously around Keito…and hmm. Maybe there isn’t any, except for some fumbled, anger-ridden etudes when he was pissed about his life in general. “Mm. Okay.” He squeezes Keito’s hand. “Just promise you won’t fall asleep like Ritsu always does?”

“If you play some kind of magical soothing vampire music, I make no promises,” Keito says loftily, twining his fingers with Rei’s. “Or am I wrong, and the only thing you can play is really _Smooth Criminal_?”

“I mean, I can rock out some _Smooth Criminal_."

“I knew it, you’re not a serious violinist, you’re just one of those scene kids that thinks you’re cool because you learned how to impress adults outside of Shinjuku Station.”

Too late, Keito remembers that Rei hadn’t told him where his stupid band plays, and his cheeks heat up. His steps quicken, and maybe if he doesn’t look at Rei, he won’t have noticed.

Rei pauses, and then his hand slowly tightens, just to make _sure_  Keito doesn’t try to escape. “So Keito _did_  track me down,” he teases, bumping his hip against Keito’s. “Did you wanna hear me sing? Or play guitar? My violin playing’s a lot better than all of that, you know~”

“Shut up. No I didn’t. I just--wanted to see what was so horrible about these ‘friends’ of yours that you wouldn’t ever let me meet them,” Keito lies. “You didn’t even _play_ , you had a guitar...”

“Mm, yeah, because violin doesn’t really work in a rock band, and they recruited me because I can play anything _and_  write music.” Rei bumps up against him again, rubbing his face into Keito’s shoulder. “If Keito wants to hear me play stuff, I’ll do it any time. The band sucks, it’s a misrepresentation of my abilities. Lemme give you my Nico channel, I sound good there.” 

“Brat. Anyone can listen to a Nico channel.” Keito grabs Rei by the tie, dragging him along to school with absolutely no success. “The perks of dating you should at least include the occasional private concert.”

Rei’s ‘following’ mostly consists of contently being dragged while _also_  trying to wrap his arms around Keito and become one with him publicly. “You can have private concerts all the time! But you can get on my Nico channel and laugh at me, I do a lot of covers of American bands and stuff. That’s why my English grades don’t suck.”

“Ah, I knew there had to be a reason that didn’t involve you putting effort in for your future success, that just--let _go_ of me, we’re almost to school!” Keito’s struggles are weak, mostly because he isn’t trying, but a little bit because his arms just aren’t equipped to fend off an advancing vampire. 

“Nooo, you’re being cute and I love you, let’s go to the music room and I’ll play violin for you instead of going to class, doesn’t that sound _awesome?_ ”

“I shouldn’t have said anything, you’re _incorrigible_ , play for me during music club time!”

“But I wanna play _now_. Keitooo, spoil me sometime, be a delinquent with me, skip class to hear a _real_  violinist!” 

“I’m pretty sure real delinquents have a different option for how to spend their time!”

“Shhh, I’m doing easy level because it’s you and you’re such a _good boy_.”

“I--I can’t today, I’m--let go of me, I told you I have a presentation today!”

“Fiiine.” Rei sighs, releasing Keito, and straightens out Keito’s clothes for him rather than bothering to do anything with his own rumpled mess of existence. “Then later, you get a private concert. Just tell me if there are any composers you hate and I’ll spare you.”

Keito waves a hand dismissively. “This is your area of expertise. I’ll be in your care.” That’s better than admitting that he doesn’t know almost anything about composers, isn’t it?

Then, he reaches over to start straightening Rei’s clothes for him in turn. “Be good, go to class today. You’re intelligent, try to apply yourself.”

Rei makes a face, even as he lets Keito attempt to groom him into some semblance of orderly. It’s a lost cause, but if it makes Keito happy, so be it. “I’ll think about it,” he lies, glancing around to see if it’s too crowded or not to steal a kiss--and when it is, he simply plants one on the palm of his own hand before pressing it to Keito’s cheek. “Later, nerd.”

~

Maybe his mom will think he’s a real musician _now_ , when he’s cutting class the entire day to lock himself in the music club room and practice violin with a stolen bottle of his parent’s wine from their last anniversary in Italy. 

“There’s nothing that ridiculous idol school can offer you,” his mother loves to insist, day in and day out, not quite getting what Rei even wants to get out of it in the first place. “You need to go overseas to be a real musician, no one’s gong to take you seriously here!”

_“And then what, be another fucking asian that plays violin to get a scholarship?”_

_“Don’t use that fucking tone with me, who taught you how to use language like that? I know you’ve been turning down every school your violin teacher offers you, you ungrateful child!”_

_When his mother is this irritated with him, Rei wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up coming home to the keycode changed on the door and no option but begging to get back into the house, but he doesn’t care. Going home sucks. Going home means that he gets to listen to his mother criticize every single fucking thing he does, and listen to her praise even the stupidest, most ridiculous decisions that Ritsu ever makes. Getting drunk enough to be flushed and floppy in his pillow fort, huddled up around his violin and contemplating gutting himself with the bow--that sounds better, and so minus most of a bottle of wine later, Rei starts getting annoyed that his violin playing probably sounds better when he’s drunk than when he isn’t._

“Keito-kun, you’re in the music club with Sakuma Rei, aren’t you? He hasn’t come to any of his classes, and we haven’t heard from his family that he’s ill...check in on him, will you?”

Even without anyone knowing that they’re dating, somehow Keito still winds up _responsible_ for his delinquent boyfriend, going early to music club to check up on him. _He’s probably just asleep_ , he means to tell them, but what if they take that as an insult, that someone could sleep through their lectures? Better to find Rei himself, and maybe write out an apology for him to give to the teachers. 

What he doesn’t expect, when he opens the music club door, is to find Rei awake--awake, and _drunk_ , judging from the smell and the empty bottle of wine. Keito adjusts his tie, scandalized, and barely resists the urge to smack the violin out of his hands. “Mind telling me what you think you’re doing?” he demands, arms folded over his chest.

“Practicing so I can waste my talent even more, _obviously._ ” Even when drunk, every run drips effortlessly from his fingers, and Rei doesn’t stop playing even when Keito is glaring at him like he’s Rei’s very conscience come to life...if he had one. “If you’re here t’yell at me,” Rei adds, grumpily hiccuping, “don’t.” 

“Why not? You don’t care if people tell you to do something, or you’d have gone to class today. Your teacher asked me to look in on you. I doubt he’d want to hear about this. You’re drunk, Rei.”

“Great observational skills there. You gonna tattle on me next?” His bow screeches to a halt--literally--and Rei flops back into his pillow pile, frowning up atKeito with ruddy cheeks. “I’ve had a bad fucking day, leave me alone.” 

Keito sets down his bag, dropping into seiza at the edge of the pillow fort, his glasses slipping down his nose as he frowns in concern. “What happened? Your...mother, I assume?”

“I told you to leave me alone about it,” Rei mumbles, rolling to the side, somehow careful of his violin and bow even when his long limbs sprawl out at odd angles. “Fuck her. She fucking sucks and fucking hates everything I do and even if I did the shit she wanted me to do she’d be fucking pissed. Even _you_ don’t yell at me that much and you’re a fucking nag.” 

Hurt flares in Keito’s chest, and his hands clench on his thighs, pressed against the tense muscles of his perfect posture. “If you think I’m so terrible, maybe I _should_ just leave you alone.”

“No no no no no no--no, you can’t leave me, not allowed.” The violin gets pushed to the side, safely deposited onto a pillow, and Rei flops forward, head in Keito’s lap. “You’re the _good_ kind of fucking nag. Keito, why are you the only one that likes me.”

“Maybe it’s because you’re the king of mixed signals,” Keito says, jaw set, hands still not moving. “You _just_ told me to leave you alone. I don’t like being insulted.”

“I’m _drunk_ ,” Rei emphatically says, as if that explains everything. It does, to him. “And I _suck_. Literally. And figuratively.” 

“It’s the literal part I have no problem with,” Keito says with a wry huff, starting to unclench a little bit, still not particularly _happy_ with this behavior. “You’re the one who chose to get drunk. You still have to accept the consequences for your drunk behavior.”

“Haven’t you ever heard of someone trying to drown their sorrows?” Rei groans, butting his face into Keito’s stomach. He hiccups again, on the verge of tears at how annoying it is to be hiccuping, of all things, and paws at Keito’s hip. “Keito. Keito, you don’t think I’m a shitty waste of space, do you? Do you know why my mom named me what she did? Because she wanted a fucking _girl,_ so she kept the same fucking name and changed the kanji to make sure I _knew_ how much I sucked.”

Keito’s hands finally uncurl, soothed by how utterly pathetic Rei seems, petting at long dark silky curls, hoping to impart some amount of comfort. “Your mother is a terrifying creature who wouldn’t understand a person’s true value if they computed it for her,” he says bluntly. “She has a son who’s strong, smart, talented, handsome, and a violin genius. Obviously, she just doesn’t want to take any personal responsibility for her failings, which are many. That’s not a reflection on you.”

On cue, Rei bursts into tears. “Y-you’re so good,” he sniffs, latching onto Keito’s waist as he huddles up into his lap. “You’re the only good thing. So good. Keito, you’re the goodest. Best. Whatever that word is. Why are you so good? W-we should go overseas and get married.” 

Keito sighs, using the end of his shirt to wipe the tears from Rei’s face. “Very unfair that you don’t get all red and blotchy when you cry. You just look like a winsome young beauty. Maybe one that has consumption.”

“G-give me a minute, I’ll get fucking snotty and groooosss.” Rei huffs loudly, staring up at him. “You d-don’t think I’m wasting my life, do you? You wanna go to Yumenosaki, too, yeah?” 

“I’m not sure that what I want really carries water in this situation,” Keito says, smoothing cool dry fingers over Rei’s cooler cheeks. “My parents don’t want to hear about my ambitions or desires. It’s bad enough that they suspect I have them. That...such a thing is only carrying me farther from enlightenment, you know. We don’t value happiness, only peace.”

Slowly, Rei lifts a hand, and plants it clumsily against the side of Keito’s face. “That’s too much Buddhism,” he says very seriously. “I’m a vampire and I wanna be famous. Maybe we should make a band.” 

“You’re drunk.”

“Yeah. I’ll teach you how to play guitar.”

“No thank you, my fingers are ravaged enough just from my grandfather’s old shamisen.”

“You’ve gotta be strong. Powerful. Check out my callouses, I’m powerful.” 

“You’re laying on the floor drunk on wine because your mother was mean to you. That’s not powerful.”

“My callouses are powerful, listen to me!” Rei whines, pawing his way upright, only to topple over again with a huff, right into Keito’s chest. “I could have a full ride to Todai,” he miserably says, sniffling and wiping his face on Keito’s shirt. “But only if I did the violin thing. Don’t wanna, I wanna be a rock star. I can do it, I can.”

“Then do it.” Keito’s fingers stroke gently, but firmly, wanting to impart comfort as much as strength, determination. “You know you have the looks and the talent. Maybe it’s just me who doesn’t care at all what your mother says, but I doubt it. I don’t...I don’t think anyone could stop you.”

“Keeeiiitttooooooo--” Rei’s arms sling their way around Keito’s neck, and his haphazard tackle ends up with Keito’s back flat on the floor and Rei very much _on_ him. “Keito, marry me, I’ll be a good wife, I’ll bear you children, I won’t even ask for child support if you divorce me for Tenshouin Eichi--”

“But the real question is, would you consider pulling yourself together?” Keito asks, wryly amused. “It disturbs me how little self confidence you have. I feel like I’m far less talented than you, and I have a great deal more.”

“No, you’re the goodest, I already told you,” Rei sniffles, burying his face into Keito’s neck. “You’re the only person that likes me, even my cute little Ritsu hates me.”

“Didn’t you go to his school and try to put clothes on him?”

“I love him,” Rei insistently says, giving Keito a firm shake. “He’s the cutest. I have to give him cute things, it’s the _law_.” 

“Yeah, yeah.” Keito is pretty sure that Ritsu disagrees with this particular interpretation of _law_. “If my brother did that to me, I’d hit him with a stick.”

“Ritsu has hit me with a parasol before.” Rei rubs his face firmly into Keito’s neck again. “Keito, make a band with me. We just need a guitarist or something.” 

Keito snorts. “What do you want me to do in a band? Play the shamisen? I suppose I can sing well enough, if you want a background vocalist.”

“Yeah. Yeah, be my background singer. I’m...I’m gonna teach you how to dance in boots, and you’re gonna let me paint your nails.” 

“Why do I need to dance in boots? There are other acceptable footwears.”

“Because your legs are screaming to be put in thigh-high lace-ups, that’s why.”

“They’re barely mumbling.”

“Shhh.” Rei aims to pet Keito’s cheek, and mostly ends up petting his entire face. “Shhh. I know what I’m...I’m talking about. Keito, you’d be so sexy. I can help you get a Yumenosaki _scholarship_ like this.” 

“By wearing boots.” Keito stops himself from smiling, reminding himself that Rei is a total idiot, and not someone to take seriously. “You think they’ll pay me to wear boots at their school, on my spindly stick legs.”

“Mmmhm. Because you’re sexy.” Rei nods, and starts petting his fingers through Keito’s hair. “Let me help you with your audition tape. I know what they want, they _begged_ me to come.” 

Keito’s eyes narrow, and he ducks down, so that Rei’s oddly damp fingers aren’t wiping over his eyes anymore. “That sounds fake. A lot of people say that schools beg them to come, but I’ve never heard of anything like that happening in real life, unless you’re incredibly wealthy and your parents want to donate.”

“My mom would never donate to an idol school. I just know know what idol schools _want_. Keito.” Rei leans in, pretty sure he’s whispering, but it’s definitely louder than that. “Keito, they think _I’m_ sexy. You’re _gonna_ get in if I help you.”

“Rei,” Keito says back, very seriously, “You _are_ sexy. I’m not. You’re forgetting this.”

“ _What?_ ” Rei’s stare is intensely confused. “No. Wrong. You’re so hot. Ritsu says I’m like a sleepy noodle.” 

“Ritsu is your brother, he has to say that. But I’m fairly certain that if we took a poll of the general populace, you’d be the winner by a landslide.”

“Wrong. You’re hot and your glasses are hot and I wanna make out with you right now.” 

Keito almost leans down and takes Rei’s mouth in a hot swift kiss, but hesitates, looking askance at the last moment. “Are you going to lose control and bite me because you’re drunk? Maybe I should tie you up.” The light glints off his glasses.

Rei opens his mouth to say _no, dumbass, I’m not gonna lose control, I’m better than that!_ but the sudden, hot flush that rises to his cheeks makes him rethink his choices in life. It’s the wine, it’s _got_ to be. “I,” he begins, “might get kinda nippy.”

Keito sighs, standing from seiza and moving to the back of the music club room, pulling out several long lengths of soft rope used to tie down windows during monsoon season. “You asked for this. Take off your clothes.” Not that he’s planned this, or enjoying the idea.

“...Keito’s got some ideas,” Rei mumbles, and heaves himself up into a sitting position to start unbuttoning his sweater. “I haven’t been misbehaving that much, have I?” Whatever the answer is, this is a _lot_ better than dwelling on his shitty mom, and her shitty opinions. 

“You’re always misbehaving to the degree that I was ready for this,” Keito says dryly. “Just tell me if you feel like you’re going to vomit. I don’t know anything about how to deal with drunk people, but I don’t want to be vomited on.”

“Vampires metab...metabol...we’re good at stuff like alcohol,” Rei fumbles his way through, and tugs his shirt off and over his head as well before working on his pants. “I’m tipsy, but it’s good. I’m not gonna puke on you when you punish me, promise.” 

_Oh, god. This is more than I signed up for._ Keito swallows hard, and advances anyway, rope in hand, slowly twisting it between his fingers. “I’ve never practiced this in real life on someone else,” he warns. “Sorry if I mess up at first.”

Rei blinks up at him, still flushed and kind of wobbly when his pants are finally kicked aside and he’s left in nothing but his boxers. “I’m not gonna be mad,” he reassures Keito, and he holds up his wrists. “In front? Or behind?”

“Behind. Or maybe...” Keito feels the heat creep up his own neck, unable to believe that he’s really going to do this in real life. “Take off the underwear.” There’s a way of securing thigh to calf to wrist that has always _appealed_ , to say the least.

Rei stifles a tipsy little laugh, even as he does what he’s told. “Keito’s got a _lot_ of ideas,” he teases. “You better be nice and feed me after all this.” 

“Don’t pretend like you’re not going to enjoy this.” Maybe not as much as _Keito_ will, but that’s hardly the material point here, he feels. 

Seeing Rei already hardening does wonders for his nerves, and these aren’t particularly difficult knots, anyway. They’re much simpler than some of the ones he’s practiced on himself out of curiosity, and it’s far easier to do it on someone else, nimble fingers threading the rope carefully over pale skin, his breath coming fast and shallow in anticipation, in sheer enjoyment of what he’s doing, framing the body, immobilizing Rei, making him look... _edible_. His own cock tents the front of his school trousers, aching already as he finishes one side, then starts on the second. “Not too tight, right?”

Rei is pretty sure he should be more embarrassed _about_ enjoying this...and maybe he would be, if he weren’t still buzzed and _so_ set on needing a distraction from a slew of negative thoughts. As it is, he only feels the slightest bit of shame at how rope sliding over his skin makes his face flush hotter, and when he tests the first knots and finds himself pretty effectively bound, calf to thigh to wrist, his cock starting to get harder between his legs is proof enough that he _is_ enjoying this. “Mmn, no, ‘s good,” he murmurs, his eyes lidding, more than a little fixated on the way he can _see_ Keito’s cock getting harder and harder. “Is this what you jerk off to?” he bluntly asks, his tongue wetting his lower lip. “Stuff like tying me up?” 

Keito hesitates...but what good is it to demur now, with his hard cock proving the truth of it? “Yes,” he admits, fastening the knot on the second one tight. “I frequently think about tying you up like this. Or...”

He trails a fingertip down Rei’s torso, feeling each intake of breath, down the soft trail of hair to just above his cock, down one thigh, then carefully over the sole of one foot. “Having you at my mercy is a frequent feature.”

Rei’s fingers twitch and curl against his thighs, reflexively wanting to reach out and grab Keito and _kiss him_ \--but here he is, tied up and...well. Very much at Keito’s mercy. He squirms where he kneels, not entirely able to settle now that his brain fully processes what he’s gotten himself into. “I don’t...hate that,” he admits, his breath hitching. “I know you’re gonna make me feel good.”

“No,” Keito corrects, straightening up now that his knots are complete, and he’s confident in them and leverage to keep Rei in place, “you don’t. You _assume_ I’m going to make you feel good.”

He reaches out, brushing his fingertips over Rei’s cheek before tilting up his chin, eyes intent, alight. “But that’s what makes you at my mercy, Rei. You don’t know for _certain_ that I’m going to make you feel good. I might not be kind to you or indulge you at all.”

_But you should be nice to me_ is what’s on the tip of Rei’s tongue, but that sticks in his throat when his mouth goes dry. A needy little groan escapes instead, and he leans into the touch of Keito’s hand, his lips parting as he sucks in a quick, eager breath. “But what if I’m _really_ good,” he breathes. “I’ll do whatever you want, please, Kei...nn, Hasumi-...sama?” _Worth a shot_ , says his cheerfully drunk mind. 

_Too much_ , Keito wants to chide, but damned if that doesn’t actually _do_ it for him, just a little, just enough to pull a throaty purr from his mouth as he leans down, capturing Rei’s mouth in a swift kiss. He pulls away before Rei can sink in his teeth--always has to be careful, not let him get the upper hand too soon--and fists a hand in those silken locks, pulling Rei’s head back as his foot slides forward, just enough to press slightly against the flushed length between his thighs. “If you’re _good_ ,” he breathes, glasses starting to fog, “I’ll reward you. Be a good boy for me. That makes you hard, doesn’t it?”

Rei swallows hard, Adam’s apple bobbing visibly when Keito grabs his hair and pulls his head back. _This is why I won’t fucking cut my hair, Mom_ , he dazedly thinks, his chest heaving as his thighs tremble, his cock twitching underneath the arch of Keito’s foot, precome beading at the tip at even just that little of a touch. “Y-yeah,” he rasps, worrying his own lower lip with his teeth, almost enough to draw blood, but not quite. Straining against those ropes makes him hard, too, but he’s pretty sure Keito got that memo already. “I wanna be good. T...tell me how, please.”

All of Rei’s strength means nothing now, when he’s securely bound in every way that matters. The power of it is heady, goes to Keito’s mind and cock in equal parts, making him lick his lips in anticipation. Carefully, he eases his waistband down, freeing his cock and dragging the head over Rei’s lips, using one hand in his hair to steady himself. “Open up,” he says, breath quick. “Let me feed it to you.”

“Shit,” is the whispered mumble underneath Rei’s breath when his cock _throbs_ , threatening to spill just at what Keito is _saying_. Maybe Keito will believe him one of these days when Rei tells him he’s sexy. It’s _this_ kind of personality, controlling and in charge, knowing exactly what he wants and how to get it...and _eager_ to get it on top of that--yeah, Rei likes that. It makes Rei’s mind cloudy, and he parts his lips obediently, his tongue flicking out to drag over the tip of Keito’s tongue before he can even shove it in. 

Keito shifts his feet farther apart, opting for more stability when he leans in, braced against Rei’s hair when he thrusts forward and pulls down at the same time, forcing his cock into Rei’s waiting, hungry mouth. 

He’s had blowjobs before, at least several times, which is something that he can and will brag about. This, however...there’s something about this particular act, the way he’s taking what he wants without concern for Rei’s opinions or feelings...

Well, perhaps no one would call this being _nice_ to Rei, but nonetheless, Keito is certain Rei is enjoying himself. “Good,” he murmurs, stroking at Rei’s hair, petting him with trembling fingers. “You’re being so good for me, open nice and wide, you want to make it good, right?”

No one else would think this is nice--probably. Rei thinks it’s really, really nice, because a cock shoved down his throat right now makes his cock ache and throb between his bound thighs, his arms flexing in the reflexive urge to lift his hands and grab Keito’s hips. He’s not sure if he’d shove Keito back or pull him closer, but his groan is choked down in his throat all the same, and he knows he’s making sloppy, gross noises in his eagerness to choke down Keito’s cock. When he sucks in a ragged breath through his nose, Rei tilts his head up to swallow down that last centimeters, his eyes watery and lidded, cheeks flushed as his tongue drags against the underside of Keito’s cock. 

Everything feels amplified, his own heartbeat echoing in his ribs, the sloppy wet noises Rei is making thunderous in his ears, every slick drag of his tongue seeming incredibly _huge_ , terribly sinful when everything is so quiet. Keito has never quite felt this sense of dominance before, with a willing, eager participant making all the difference between how it normally is (just him alone with his hand and his fantasies). 

He strokes and pets and murmurs, letting his hips rock slowly in, letting Rei’s tongue drag over him, pressing _past_ the gag reflex with a groan of utter pleasure wrecking him. “Not long,” he pants, rubbing past those sticky red lips, eyes locked on the whites of Rei’s. “You’ll swallow it all and thank me for the meal, won’t you?”

Rei tries to nod and fails, choking for a brief moment when that just makes Keito’s cock press in the exact _wrong_ spot. He swallows rapidly to regroup, to refocus, and his head, already feeling dizzy from the alcohol, spins for a moment. When he blinks, the pair of tears that streak down his flushed cheeks makes it feel like his skin is burning, and Rei is sure the whimper that wells up in his throat just sounds like garbled, choked nonsense. 

But _fuck_ , he’s hard.

His nails dig into his own thighs, adding a strange, achy sharpness to the haze that his mind already is in. His cock drips and twitches, and he thoughtlessly lurches forward into the pull of Keito’s hands the next time he tugs on his hair, willingly, eagerly swallowing him down. The effort it takes to keep his fangs out of the way makes it messier, and the trickle of drool that drips down from his chin can’t be sexy--but what the fuck does he know? Keito’s so hard against his tongue, so hard between his lips that every thrust of his hips makes his jaw ache more, and the desire to _keep being good for him_ is so strong that Rei doesn’t care.

With a final groan, Keito’s hips jerk forward, and he spills messier than he intended, jerking so hard he bumps against Rei’s lips, spilling hot and thick over his mouth--his chin--his cheeks, the last few spurts emptying into his mouth and over his tongue. Keito doesn’t apologize--that would ruin the fantasy, that this is all on _purpose_ \--but he does draw back afterwards, gasping for breath and drawing on his archery club training to keep upright, to keep still. “G-God,” he grunts, nails scraping against Rei’s scalp. 

_It does take effort not to gag, to swallow as much as he can, not to cough or jerk back, all while panting for the first full breath he’s managed to have since Keito shoved his dick down his throat._

Which, dammit, is way hotter than it should be.

_Not yet, not yet!_  he pleads with himself, but his cock basically refuses to listen to him. He chokes on a groan as his own cock throbs between his legs, leaving him to squirm when a first, desperate trickle of come spills, trickling onto his thighs as Rei’s tongue flicks out, running over his lips, lapping up what he can of the mess that drips over them. The mess that’s on his chin and the rest of his face is a lost cause, and it makes him whimper, shivering as he tries to think of ways to make his tongue work for _speaking_ , not just for _pleasuring._  “T…thank you…for the meal…”

Keito sags backwards, knees buckling, and he winds up somehow on his knees in front of Rei, grabbing frantically, hazily for his cock, swollen and so dark red it looks nearly purple. “You’re so sexy,” he whispers, eyes wide as he strokes urgently, squeezing the head with every jerk of his wrist. “You’re so good, Rei, come for me, I want to watch you, _do it now_ \--”

Rei sags forward with a broken groan, his head thunking down against Keito’s shoulder. Every bone in his body feels like it’s melting, every muscle like it’s giving up, just with a few strokes of Keito’s hand—which isn’t fair, by the way, and thank _god_  he’s begging Rei to come and not fucking teasing or tormenting him.

He swears he hears the ropes creak when he comes, what with how his muscles bunch and tremble and how his hands claw into his own thighs. He muffles a breathless sob against Keito’s neck as he spills over his hand, his back arched so taunt that it _hurts_ , and fuck, _fuck_ , it’s too much for him to even process when he just _keeps_  coming with lingering little spasms. “F-fuck…fuck, god, I’m gonna die,” he sobs. “K…Keito…”

Going to die? Shit, it _sounds_ like Rei is going to die, and that’s terrifying enough to make Keito lurch into action, yanking at the ropes binding him with abandon, accidentally tightening one of them much too far before he remembers which way to pull, finally freeing him. “Sorry, sorry, you’re fine, you’re _great_ , are you all right?”

Automatically, Rei’s arms lift to grab onto Keito and cling, with every shivery little impulse that flutters down his spine making him grab tighter. “Uh huh,” he shakily breathes, burying his face into Keito’s shoulder. “S-sorry, sorry, I’m f-f-fine, that was…” _Really good, really a lot, really great???_  Too much to talk about, definitely, especially when his mind is only barely now deciding that he can attempt at being sober.

“Good,” Keito repeats firmly, when he’s mostly certain that Rei isn’t actually going to die, and that he probably needs to hear this. He pets firmly, as if that’s going to make Rei calm down, the crazy drunk, and rests their foreheads together. “You’re so good, Rei, you did so good, you really, really did well.”

Rei hiccups for another moment before slowly, gradually settling. He shivers a little more, and his fingers remain firmly entrenched in the back of Keito’s shirt, refusing to loosen his hold. “ _You’re_  good,” he mumbles, butting his head against Keito’s hand as he’s petted. “Fuck. You’re so hot. We can…we can do that again.”

Keito huffs out a startled breath, lips curving into a pleased little smile. “As if you could stop me. Ah, that was so hot, I’m not sure how to deal with the rest of my life. You really...liked that? On that end of it?”

A firm nod follows, and Rei finally feels…well, there’s no word for it, except maybe _undazed_  (but that’s not a real word) enough to rock back and wipe at his face. “Yeah. I mean…this is gonna sound weird, but it was like…kinda really what I needed today?” he says with a nervous laugh. “Sometimes my head gets in a loop and I can’t stop thinking about all the bad stuff, even if it’s just stupid, and this, ah. This made it shut up.” 

“Oh.” That hadn’t really occurred to Keito, and he gently pulls the ropes away from Rei’s body, tossing the loose strands over his shoulder. “I just really always wanted to do that. Ah, I hope you don’t mind that I definitely used your drunkenness for my own twisted ends.”

“Oh, no.” Rei slowly unfolds himself, and then flops down onto the floor, uncaring. “It was also really hot,” he contently says. “And I _really_  like giving you blowjobs, so it’s a win-win.” 

“We can. We can do other things while you’re tied up. It doesn’t have to just be blowjobs. I know...I know more knots, Rei.”

“Yes. And then you mentioned it, and I looked it up, and now I know a _lot_ about kinbaku.”

Rei’s eyes glitter, even as he sprawls out on the floor. “ _Well._  Guess I know what we’re doing in-between fixing up one hell of an audition tape for you, huh.”

Keito smiles, one of the few soft, open smiles he’s ever given another human being where they can see him. “Well, I love it, and it makes the noise in your head go away, so...yeah.”

Rei stretches out one hand, making a grabbing motion for Keito. “I’ll try just about anything,” he honestly says. “Just cuddle with me afterwards. You gotta.”

“Just put me where you want me,” Keito says, long-suffering and enjoying it.

~

The rest of the band Staplegun (Rei did not name it, would have renamed the whole damned thing Half-assed and Desperate For Attention if given the chance) is nothing but high schoolers, and he fits right in, for better or worse.

  


Aito is 18, shorter than Rei, and salty about that and how little he really knows about guitar. Hideaki is 17, short, pretty shitty at drums, and low-key is trying to get into the lower ranks of yakuza, Rei is pretty sure. Shun, 18, is Rei’s height and doesn’t care about bass, and mostly wants to spend time on the phone with his shitty, horrific girlfriend Natsuki, who smells like the cheap perfume from department stores that Rei passes by every day from school. 

  


Rei, who is turning 15 in exactly one month, took over rhythm guitar from Aito when it was clear he couldn’t crack it, and sings every line and writes it all, too, is starting to lose his sense of humor. 

  


The chill of October is starting to creep in, and nights at Shinjuku station aren’t the best for busking anymore. It’s a good reason for the other members to skip out and not show up on the nights that they’re supposed to, and an even better excuse for them to never come to practice, even after Rei went out of his way to beg and plead with his parents to let them come to his house just once a week. 

  


_It’s fine, whatever, I’ll just be the one that stands out._

  


That’s the plan, at least, until literally no one pays attention to them, night after night. The entire band’s enthusiasm is in the gutter, and it shows, leaving Rei tired, frustrated, and drained as he packs up his guitar, huddles up into his coat, and tries to think of ways to nicely disband this trainwreck. _It’s not like I came up with the idea of this, though. They recruited me, I don’t have to stick around, I don’t have to be the leader, I’m not responsible, I could be making out with Keito right now—_

  


“Oiii, Sakuma-kuuuun!” 

  


Natsuki smells like Ritsu’s strawberry syrup went bad, and Rei tries not to grimace when she gloms onto his arm, squeezing it tight. Her bleached hair is strung up in a bun, and her makeup rubs off onto the shoulder of his black coat when she presses her face to it. “Heeeey, sexy. My dad wants to talk to you.” 

  


Still pretty used to being 155 centimeters and gawky as hell, being called ‘sexy’ still doesn’t entirely jive with Rei’s thought processes—and if there is one thing Rei considers himself entirely inept with, it’s talking to girls. Natsuki’s voice makes him want to shove his hands over his ears, besides, so this is even worse than usual. “Why?” 

  


“Because he’s a producer, dumbass, and he likes your look.” Natsuki leans up, eyes gleaming beneath her false eyelashes. “He doesn’t even wanna talk to Shun-chan, c’mon.”

  


That’s because Shun sucks at bass, can barely carry a tune, and needs to wash his hair. Rei doesn’t say that, though, because this looks like the smallest glimmer of opportunity that he’s seen in awhile. “…What label does he work with?” 

  


“KMB. Not bad, huh?” She laughs, slapping his arm. “Come on, he’s on the other side of the station waiting.”

  


It’s late—maybe not for him, but his mom is probably waking up around now…but who cares? This could be a chance—an actual record label, anything at all, Rei dreamily thinks, and lets himself be tugged to the other side of the station.

  


Sure enough, they’re greeted by a man in his fifties, suit and tie and perfectly cut and smoothed hair. “Sakuma-kun,” he greets, bowing and presenting his business card. “Imada Takeshi. I’ve seen some videos of your performances that Natsuki has taken.”

  


KMB Entertainment—she wasn’t lying about that, Rei thinks dazedly, flipping the card over in his hand, and he hastily fumbles for one of his own, stuffed into his pocket. It’s cold enough that his fingers don’t want to move, and he can see his own breath as he bows, passing it over. “My Nico channel has a lot more, in a lot better quality—I feel like my solo work is much more impressive. Ah. Sir.”

  


“Don’t we all feel that way?” Imada says with a laugh. “I know it’s abrupt, but I don’t suppose you have time to discuss a few…options tonight?” 

  


“Yes. I mean. Absolutely.” Rei tries to still his hands from shaking in their excitement. “I have a lot of ideas, definitely, and I play violin, piano, drums, guitar—“

  


“Save it, save it,” Imada says good-naturedly, and opens up the backseat to his car. “Hop in, the studio’s not too far from here.”

  


Rei opens his mouth to agree, and pauses, long enough to notice that Natsuki…is gone. “Natsuki-san isn’t coming?”

  


“Kid’s probably back out with her boyfriend,” Imada grunts, ushering him into the car. “She comes home late all the time, whatever.”

  


In retrospect, all of this should have been one enormous red fucking flag.

  


That doesn’t change the fact that three hours later, half past one in the morning, Rei is stumbling to the street corner outside of a fancy high rise, struggling to pry his phone out of his sweater’s pocket. His hands won’t stop trembling, his vision won’t stop doubling, and his legs decide to pick then to crumple, sending him slowly to the ground at the crosswalk.

  


Well, that’s…fine. No one’s around, the streets are dead, empty, and that’s…that’s also fine. 

  


To: Keito

Subject: sorry

can u come pik mc euep

  


Too much shaking. Typing is useless. Have to get out of here, his mind hisses at him, sluggish, foggy, and angry tears well up into his eyes, stinging his already sore eyes furiously. If you weren’t so fucking stupid, this wouldn’t be happening! 

  


He dials instead of types, holding the phone to his ear with both hands, and hopes, hopes Keito picks up, and doesn’t get in trouble for getting a phone call at one in the morning.

 

It takes about four rings before the phone clicks on, and there’s a muffled rustling sound. A few moments later, a sleepy voice says, “Hello? Rei?” as quietly as possible, Keito twisting up to shut his door, half-whispering into the phone. “What’s wrong?”

Rei expects a lot of stupid fucking reactions from himself by now, but what he doesn’t expect is the sound of Keito’s sleepy, unaware voice to make him burst into tears. 

_That’s not helpful!_  his mind screams at him, and Rei holds the phone away from his face for a moment, trying to remember how to breathe without hyperventilating. “I…” He gulps unsteadily, and tries not to sniffle too loudly into the phone. “Is…is there any way you can c-come to…” Fuck, where even is he? Shinjuku still? “Shit. I don’t know.” He almost says _forget it_ , almost hangs up, but his fingers are locked to the phone, unwilling to pull it from his face again like it’s his last lifeline.

By the time Rei finishes his broken, rambling speech, Keito is already moving, as quietly down the hallway as he can manage, slipping his shoes on and dashing towards the temple gates. “Where are you? I’m getting in a taxi.”

The typical, dull roar of a train station might have gone silent for the night, but at least Rei can summon the sense to look for one, even through the blurry sting of way too much salt water in his eyes. “…Harajuku, I think. T-there’s a sign for the Chiyoda subway entrance.” He huffs into the phone, biting down on another hiccuping breath. “I’m r-really sorry. You don’t have to come, I’ll figure it out, it’s my fault—“

“Shut up. I’m already out of the house, just--just hold on, all right? You’re not that far from me. Stay on the line, I’ll be ten minutes.” And thank god the streets are almost deserted. Keito blinks sleep out of his eyes, propelled forward by concern, until he finds a taxi and gives the man hurried instructions. Safely in the back of the car, he says lightly, “I don’t suppose you have cash on you.”

Rei stuffs a hand into the pocket of his sweater, and thank _fuck_  his wallet is still there. _It’s not like he wanted your money_ , that delightful nag in the back of his head pipes up again, and Rei’s fingers shake anew. “Y-yeah. I do.” 

“Good. I’m in pajamas and the cabbie is looking at me like he’s never seen a teenager before.” Keito hears himself starting to ramble, desperate to fill in the horrible silence with something, anything, when Rei sounds so shaken. “Are those miscreants from your band with you, or did they run off home?” It sounds as if Rei has been in a fight, at least, and Keito tries to think of where he can take a tall, handsome young man with bruises and blood or whatever all over him.

“They’re not here.” At least he’s not crying now. His face hurts from all the fucking crying, and Rei rubs at it with his sleeve, at least trying to wipe off some of the tears before they dry to a gross crust on top of the cold sweat that keeps trying to break out all over his body. “We were performing earlier, b-but that was…that was a few hours ago, I think.” 

Keito covers the mouthpiece, saying quietly, “Faster, please, if at all possible, I believe this is an emergency.”

His heart slams against his ribcage, but he’s _got_ to stay calm, one of them’s got to be sensible and not fall apart. “Just stay on the line with me, I’m halfway to you now. I should have known they’d all be useless.”

“What? N-no, it’s not their fault.” Rei can’t believe he’s defending the rest of his shitty, _shitty_  band, but hell, they’re not the ones on a street corner, huddling underneath a street light like it’s the last bit of protection he’s got because he literally can’t move without wanting to fall over and die. “I’m just an idiot. God, I really fucked up.” He tilts his head back, letting it bang back against the metal crosswalk pole. “How can you stand dating someone so dumb, huh?” 

Keito laughs nervously, gripping the handle on the cab door, fully ready to hit the pavement at a dead run if need be the second it rolls to a stop. “You must have other redeeming qualities. Being comforting in a time of crisis is apparently not one of them. I’m close, are you standing outside?”

“I’m apparently pretty hot, at least.” That makes his stomach flip and twist, and Rei shuts his eyes to avoid the way the light shining on him suddenly makes him feel sick. “I’ll…I’ll stand up, just gimme a sec,” he murmurs, slowly hauling himself upright, no matter how his head pounds and how his legs wobble. _Vampires are good with alcohol_  he’d cheerfully told Keito once, but it’s not the alcohol that makes him feel like this—it had literally been a glass, just _one_ , and he knows his own tolerance really fucking well. 

“Sir, don’t get out of the car, we’re still moving and you haven’t paid--”

Keito doesn’t pay any attention to the cabbie, near-throwing himself out of the car door the second that familiar lanky figure is in sight, sprinting up to Rei and checking him all over with his eyes, looking for bruises, cuts, a bleeding gunshot wound, _anything_...

And finding very little, besides sunken eyes, clouded-over pupils, and a shocking lack of the easy, breezy self-confidence that he’s always found so infuriatingly sexy.

The pit drops out of his stomach faster than if he’d seen open gashes. Whatever had happened...it had been bad. He knows it, knows it without words, and his stomach settles somewhere around his feet. “Come on,” he whispers, reaching down for Rei’s chilly, familiar hand. “Let’s get you off the street, hmm? First things first.”

Keito, for better or for worse, is so agonizingly familiar that Rei just nods, thoughtless as he clutches at Keito’s hand with still-trembling fingers and lets himself be pulled along. He tries to stuff his cellphone into his pocket, misses the first time, and gets it the second time as he simultaneously fumbles with his wallet. “Here,” he mumbles, passing it over. “Sorry for making you come out here. Can you…can you just get him to take me home?” It’s pretty close to the last place he wants to be right now, but it’s better than a few other options, and anyone at Keito’s temple would ask too many questions.

“Or,” Keito suggests, wanting to bite the inside of his cheek bloody for being about to say something so out of character and disorderly, “I could open up the archery club house, as captain, and we could hide out there for the rest of the night?”

Rei hesitates, and more than anything, wonders if he’s hallucinating. _Hasumi Keito_  wouldn’t suggest something like that, except…maybe for him? Maybe. It makes a lump form in his throat, and he nods, eyes stinging, which rivals every sluggish, aching muscle he has right now. “That…that would be really good,” he whispers, glancing down at his feet, struggling not to just droop his way back to the ground. “Sorry.” 

“It’s fine. It’s fine.” The second repetition is more to himself than to Rei, as Keito desperately tries to convince himself that something, _anything_ could be fine when Rei looks like he’s been...attacked, or something equally horrifying. He gives the driver the address of the school, which is fortunately nearby, and then busies himself with helping Rei out of the car and towards the club room. “My parents will just think I left early for school,” he promises. “I do that, sometimes, even before they wake up. There are things I have stored in here--extra books, school supplies, things like that, so if I wind up not being able to go to my locker between classes...” Maybe if he keeps talking, it will keep something horrifying from coming out of Rei’s mouth, as he knows it’s bound to eventually.

“Keito. Can you just...stop talking, for a few seconds? My head hurts.” 

The archery club house is as spartan as Rei expects it to be, with none of the organized chaos of the music room. He’d die for a chance to huddle up underneath the five or ten blankets his pillow fort offers and never come out again, but at least in here, no one’s going to bother him, no one’s going to come _looking_ for him. “I just want to go to bed,” he admits with a shaky laugh, tugging his sweater more firmly around himself. “I don’t care about going to class. If you don’t want anyone to find me here, I’ll...I’ll go to the music room before club starts, it’s fine.” 

Keito grimaces. “Did I do the wrong thing? Should I have taken you home? Ah, I wanted to take you to my house, but someone would definitely have asked questions there...” 

That isn’t exactly shutting up, as Rei had requested, so he falls silent, sitting down on the tatami mat in seiza. “Sorry. I don’t know what to do. But anything, I--you can have it.”

Slowly, gingerly, Rei flops down onto the tatami mats, his legs more or less melting out from underneath him. “A bag in case I start puking?” he suggests with a nervous laugh. His arm wobbles when he braces back onto it. “I literally just had one drink, I swear, he just...he put something in it.” Rei fumbles in his pockets for a second, and exhales a frustrated breath. “And of course he took his fucking card back. Yeah, I’m a fucking idiot, you can say it.”

Keito stares at him, impulsively moving closer, not daring to touch, but reaching out anyway, hand curling back in on itself. “That’s not...what I was going to say,” he says softly, something cold and hard turning over in his stomach. “I was going to ask if you want to go to the police. I’ll come with you.” 

Rei stares back at him, incomprehension furrowing his brow. “No. Fuck no. I’m _not_ going to the police. I’m--” He pauses, and curses underneath his breath, hot, frustrated tears pricking his eyes again. “Fuck, I’d rather file a report about my guitar being stolen than anything else. I fucking left it there. My mom’s gonna fucking kill me, but he fell asleep, and I just...” He trails off, breath hiccuping. “W-whatever. It’s not my violin, at least, so it doesn’t matter.” A firm shake of his head follows. “No police, not about anything.” 

The cold, hard feeling twists, and Keito wishes, only wishes that he were younger, more innocent, hearing about all of this for the first time and _horrified_. But he’s seen this before, a few times; not exactly the same, but he’s listened at the door to the same gulping, shuddering breaths from two different shrine maidens at the temple, recounting stories about men who had seemed so _nice_. 

But why does it have to be Rei? 

Keito would give anything not to see Rei like this, not to know about how lost and broken and _young_ he seems when he’s upset, but that’s not how a good boyfriend, or even an adequate friend, does things, so he stifles that response. Right, damage control. “If you want,” he volunteers carefully, “I can come with you to a police box, and we can tell them you were mugged. You don’t have to give a description, but if it’s insured...”

Rei shakes his head firmly, his hair swinging in front of his face. “My mom’s gonna kill me either way,” he admits with a humorless, shuddery laugh. “And police reports...that’ll just make it worse. ‘What kind of weakling are you to let your shit get stolen, huh? You can’t even tell a _human_ to fuck off?’ And then there’s a paper trail, about _anything_ , and she gets freaked out about that, even us going to school makes her nervous but she can’t be fucked to hire private tutors after Ritsu bit the last one...” He’s rambling now, which is just _great_ , and Rei feels his hands start to shake again. He shifts to sit on them, but it doesn’t really do much to make them stop. “It’s better if she just thinks I’m a fuckup. I mean, she wouldn’t be wrong.”

Keito reaches over, and grabs one of Rei’s hands as tightly as he can, barely tight enough to make Rei notice, but maybe, _maybe_ enough to get through. “Just say it was stolen out of a locked room while you weren’t there,” he urges. “It isn’t...none of this is your fault, Rei. None of it.” God, what had his father said to Merika, when she’d been distraught? Of course he can’t remember when it’s important. Not that the words would have sounded good coming from someone so confused, so awkward anyway, but he’s the only one _here_.

Don’t start crying again! his mind warns him, but as per usual, he can’t be fucked to listen to it. Rei sniffs, and hurriedly shoves the sleeve of his sweater underneath his nose before it starts running when tears somehow manage to keep pooling up into his eyes even when he’s pretty sure that’s more than enough by now. “Bullshit,” Rei says on a broken laugh. “You would’ve kicked my ass if you had seen how dumb I was. He said he was a fucking producer, Keito, and I believed him when he said I was good enough to sign. Like anyone would want to sign someone from my fucking band.” He scrubs at his face with one hand, and keeps clinging to Keito’s hand with the other. “But his apartment was legit and he offered me a drink and I...I thought it smelled off, but I just didn’t even think. So yeah. It’s my fault.” 

“If you say that again, I’m going to slap you,” Keito says flatly, eyes blazing behind his glasses. “And if you think I would have gone after _you_ and not him, you’re reading the situation wrong to an awful degree. If someone--if a man like that--an _adult_ , you’re still a minor no matter how you look at it--offered you things and then tricked you, that’s a _crime_.”

Rei’s mouth opens, closes, and then he looks aside when the waterworks decide to start in full force again. At least he’s not fucking hyperventilating this time; his eyes just won’t stop watering, that’s it, that’s all it is. “Doesn’t make me feel any less stupid,” he finally manages to say, his breath hiccuping behind his sleeve.“W-what am I supposed to tell my mom? She’s gonna know something’s wrong; she’s like a fucking drug dog, she can smell it, and e-even if I told her the truth, she’d be pissed at _me_ for being such a shitty vampire.” He sniffs again. “Sorry. Don’t slap me, I’ll s-stop being a crybaby in a second.”

“I’m not annoyed with you for crying,” Keito says, frustrated with himself for handing this so _poorly_ , frustrated with Rei for not understanding, frustrated with himself for being frustrated with Rei. He reaches over, grabbing at Rei’s arms, pulling them down and grabbing for his pocket handkerchief, then his sleeve when he remembers he’s in pajamas. “If your mother told you not to bite people, she shouldn’t be angry at you for not biting people. Also, she’s terrible. Come live at my temple if she’s horrible.”

“She w-wouldn’t want me to bite him, she’d want me to...I don’t know, not _suck_ and be able to kick his ass or something. And I can’t live at your temple, everyone would get pissed at how much I practice because the walls and stuff are too thin.” Rei sniffs, blinking through bleary eyes, and tugs on Keito’s sleeve, holding it rather than using it to wipe his face. “I...I don’t even remember most of it,” he whispers. “I was so fucking out of it. I guess that’s better, huh.” 

“...maybe,” Keito agrees hesitantly. If Rei is actually _seeking_ contact now, maybe....He scoots closer, tentatively patting at Rei’s shoulder, letting him keep holding that sleeve. “I don’t suppose hearing about how this adharma is going to affect him in his next life is going to make this any better?”

“It might,” Rei says with a stress-born laugh, his fingers curling up around Keito’s sleeve so tightly that his knuckles turn white. “What do you think happens to vampires if they die? When we’re young, we’re not immortal, you know. We’re basically just slightly less shitty humans.” 

“I’m not sure how an inability to eat most food or go out in sunlight makes you _less_ shitty,” Keito says, with a dark little humor. “But...”   
  
But maybe a real response will be better.

His hand moves, gently stroking over Rei’s shoulder, over the ends of his hair, voice pitched low and even. “We’re taught that it doesn’t matter what you’re born; no creature is inherently good or evil. Behaving according to your nature is one thing, but behaving according to the teachings of the Buddha and the boddhisatva--you don’t have to be Buddhist to live that way. If you do good things, you’re acting in accordance with the laws of the universe. If you work to hurt other people or disrupt the natural order of things for gain, you’re disrupting everything. It...it doesn’t matter what you are,” he finishes softly. “You can be born an ant. You can be reincarnated as moss, or a stinkbug, or a god, but there’s no escape from your own actions. What you do--that defines you, more than what you were born.”

Rei nods slowly, blinking away the sting of tears from his eyes again as his head droops underneath the touch to his hair. “Good thing I try not to actively be a piece of shit, then,” he says with a huffed out breath. “Maybe I’ll get reincarnated as a sheep and my intestines’ll be ripped out to make some historically accurate violin strings. That would be fucking cool.” 

“It could happen. Buddhism doesn’t...it’s not a wish-granting religion,” Keito says softly. “Bad things happen to good people. If it’s the slightest consolation, he’ll probably be reincarnated as a disease-carrying blackfly or something. I’m not really supposed to comment on that kind of thing, but...I hope he’s one of the ones that gets a wing torn off as a larvae.”

“Gross,” Rei says with a wet laugh, finally scooting closer on his own accord and trying to meld himself up against Keito. “S-sorry, I know you aren’t big on cuddling, but if you could put up with me for a little bit, I’ll--w-whatever you want, later.” 

“It isn’t that I’m not _big_ on it.” Keito puts out a huge burst of effort and hauls Rei into his lap, grunting as his back twists a bit. Stupid heavy vampires, even if Rei swears he weighs the same as Keito. “I’m just bad at it. I like it just fine. Better when it’s you.”

Rei immediately curls himself up against Keito’s chest, a surprisingly compact ball even when his limbs are so long. “You’re not bad at it, you’re good.” He buries his face into Keito’s neck. “And you smell good. Sorry, I’m gonna need to rub on you a little, I...I’ve gotta smell like you instead or I’m gonna go insane.” 

“Then do whatever you need to do. God, lending you my scent is the least I can do. Want to rub against my armpits?”

“I’m not at that point yet, but I’m getting there,” Rei says with a ragged little giggle. On an afterthought, he lifts a hand up to fumble with the buttons of his sweater, shrugging it off, and then goes for the shirt he has underneath to yank it over his head and throw it across the room. Shirtless, it’s easy to see the lingering artifacts of his night--finger-shaped bruises across his ribcage, a few hickeys in odd places across his shoulders and collarbones--but Rei pretends none of it is there, and instead, tugs on Keito’s shirt. “Gimme your shirt or I’m crawling inside it when you’re wearing it.” 

“You won’t like it, it’s pajamas,” Keito warns, but strips off his shirt nonetheless, because he can’t bear to look at the marks any longer. He feels awkward and skinny as usual, but any of that is better than seeing Rei’s bruised, bitten skin, and he almost jerks the shirt over his arms. “You want my pants, too?”

“I want to live in pajamas,” Rei bluntly reminds him, tugging the shirt on over his head with a sigh of relief. It smells of nothing but Keito, and burrowing down into that is such a relief that he almost wants to die right then and there. “I mean, I’m not gonna _argue_ if you want to give me your pants...” He’s had enough of skinny jeans, thanks, and kind of wants to burn every single thing that he’s wearing, besides. “Do you have a change of clothes in here, though? I don’t wanna take all of your stuff...”

“I’ll just wear my archery uniform. Ah, unless you’d prefer to wear that? No, you like pajamas.” Keito twists, squirming around until he can get his pants off, then shivers. “Get up, I’m going to grab my clothes. If I wear that, everyone will think we’ve got an event coming up and start panicking. It’ll be good.”

“Yeah, okay.” Rei rolls out of his lap, and spends what he thinks is an unfair amount of time fucking with the fastenings of his own jeans when his fingers still aren’t as nimble and coordinated as he’s used to. He peels them off, kicking them aside, and yanks Keito’s pajamas up before the bruises--way worse on his thighs, on his knees--get to be scrutinized underneath Keito’s gaze. Wrapped in nothing but his boyfriend’s scent, Rei starts to feel a little better, and he slinks back down onto the tatami mats, flopping onto his back. At least they’re basically the same size, even when it comes to legs, or this would be really fucking impossible. “If you didn’t wanna do that,” he says with a flutter of one hand, “I might have an extra uniform in the music club room--I forget to bring all of mine sometimes.” 

“Sure, I’ll just walk there naked.”

“I mean, that’s probably what I’d do.” 

“I don’t know what you think of my family, but if there’s a sect you’re thinking of that would behave that way, we’re the other one.”

“All I’m saying is that I’ve been naked with you a lot, so it’s hard to determine your shame level.” 

“Buddhists don’t believe in shame. Not body shame, anyway. I’m still Japanese.”

“If you don’t believe in shame, then come over here and cuddle me naked.” Rei makes weary grabbing motions with his hands. “Will you hate me if I need a drink?” 

Keito grimaces. “Sorry, I should have offered. I think? I don’t know what’s normal in this situation, sorry.” 

He slides up behind Rei again, tugging him into his lap, and tilts his head to the side. “From here? Or somewhere else? You need to be less shaky.”

“Wow, Keito must be really worried about me if he’s letting me do it from his neck,” Rei half-heartedly teases, thunking his head down against Keito’s shoulder. “I don’t even know if it’ll help. My thought process was maybe it’ll dilute whatever’s left in my system so I stop feeling all...ugh.” 

“Try not to make me drug-infested,” Keito says wearily, but doesn’t pull away. It’s the least he can do. “It’s mosquito season, also. I can just say I was bitten by a blood-sucking lowlife, and no one will know the truth.”

“Where’s the lie?” Rei cheerfully says, nuzzling into Keito’s neck. Just the smell of Keito and Keito’s blood is a balm to his nerves, and he just nuzzles there for a moment more, savoring it. “I don’t _think_ me drinking from you will make you get any drugs in _your_ system,” he hedges. “But if you’re worried about it, I won’t.” 

_“I did take seventh grade science,” Keito says softly. “All the stuff he probably...it wears off quickly. If something trace gets into my system, I’m sure it’ll be fine. Please.”_

“Okay. I’m...I’m really sorry if something does, though.” Rei mouths a kiss right where he wants to bite, and it makes him shiver, suddenly and acutely starving, which is why he isn’t as gentle as he wants to be when he finally does bite down. 

The taste of Keito’s blood makes him groan, especially when it’s fresh from his jugular, of all places. It’s bright, and heady, and Rei only allows himself a few mouthfuls before he pulls back, sucking in a ragged breath as he lets his head thunk down against Keito’s shoulder. 

Sudden ice cool spreads through Keito’s veins, and he can’t remember if this is what it usually feels like or _more_ , whether that’s from the drugs or from Rei’s desperation or from how on-edge they both are. He shudders down to his toes, feeling them curl against the wooden floor, his bare skin prickling in the cool air, goosebumps scaling up his arms and back, an unwanted erection pressing suddenly against Rei’s backside. “Do you think it’s a self-defense mechanism?” he slurs, mouth gone slack. “Like the blood is running from the puncture, anywhere it can?”

“I dunno. It happens to vampires, too, if we drink from each other. Ahh, sorry,” Rei says with a grimace, smelling the way Keito’s body temperature drops before he feels his goosebumps (and his erection, which he’s just going to ignore right now), and he glances around for anything that could at least be used as a blanket. He heaves himself up to his feet--or tries to, but his legs still threaten to buckle out from underneath him, and he flops back down, feeling his stomach do a few _weird_ flips. “S...sorry, gimme a second, and I’ll...” 

Keito tugs Rei firmly back down, setting him on the floor as he drags himself to standing. It’s not as bad as it used to be, the disorientation, though some of the physical reactions are as powerful as ever. “Stay there,” he orders woozily, stumbling towards the clothing cabinet, carefully changing into his archery uniform. It’s warm, and loose until he cinches it, which he doesn’t bother doing right now, forgoing that to stumble back towards Rei. “Better. Warmer. Come cuddle, I’m fine.”

“Gonna try not to puke on you,” Rei mumbles, which is totally not sexy and not cool, but he can’t help it right now. He crawls his way over, huddling up against Keito, basically crawling _into_ his clothes as much as he can. “I feel really... _really_ gross,” he says with a ragged little huff of breath. “I’m sorry. I’ll...I’ll do something later, can you just pet me or something right now?” 

“Yeah, I’ve got you.” Keito starts petting as aggressively as he thinks is appropriate, over Rei’s arms, shoulders, and hair. It probably isn’t even strong enough to make Rei blink. “After you’re less shaky, I’ll take you to shower. That’ll help, don’t you think?”

Rei’s nod is a very adamant one, and he curls both arms around Keito’s waist, fastening himself there and holding on as tightly as he can without crushing his ribs. “Yeah. Y-yeah, it will. Thanks.” He stuffs his face back into Keito’s chest. “I’m really sorry you...you have to deal with all of this, but if it were anyone else, I’d just wanna die. So...so, thank you.” 

“There’s no need to thank me.” The act of it makes Keito a little uncomfortable, but this isn’t about him, and he doesn’t pause in his petting. “You shouldn’t have to deal with it, either. Something happened to you, so we deal with it. Arguing against reality is the worst sin. Ah, sorry, I’m very Buddhist today.”

“No, no, it’s good, you can keep being Buddhist.” Rei shuts his eyes, trying to focus on the steady thud of Keito’s heart even when his head won’t stop feeling like it’s about to float off of his body. “I’m not very good at being Buddhist or Shinto, but listening to you talk about it makes me feel better.” 

“If you take comfort in it, you _are_ Buddhist, a little. Or at least, you’re engaging in Buddhist behaviors.” It’s so much easier to talk about Buddhism than it is to talk about _what happened tonight_ , so Keito just keeps talking softly, petting gently. “It isn’t a religion that bars anyone access. Vampires could join.”

“Yeah?” Rei pulls part of Keito’s kimono over his own face, because that’s nice when he can already _feel_ the sun trying to come up. “Maybe I’ll quit the idol life idea and help you run your temple.”

“It would be a quiet, relaxing life, full of dedication and prayer.” Keito pauses, then adds, “And cleaning. More than you’d expect, really. Mmh, we should go on a pilgrimage some time. Have you ever been up to Mount Kurama in Kyoto, during one of the summer festivals?”

“I suck at cleaning. I mean, unless it’s my instruments or something. I’d be a bad temple caretaker, I guess.” Rei’s head shakes slowly against Keito’s chest. “I’ve never even been to Kyoto, period. Too hot.” 

“We could go up to Nikko, then. Much cooler. Or Sendai, and see the giant statue--or anywhere you want. Maybe over summer break, if you aren’t at another conservatory.”

“Kidnap me.” Rei nuzzles against his chest. “You can be my Buddhist tour guide and show me cool old temple things and teach me how to be better at being Buddhist. Do they care if you’re big homos in Buddhism?” 

“Well...” Keito scratches his nose where an errant piece of Rei’s hair keeps tickling him. “There aren’t any sexual taboos as long as you aren’t hurting anyone, if you practice a pure version of it. As long as you can find some way to be who you are without dishonoring or damaging your family, it’s no worse than any other form of sexuality.” He pauses, then adds softly, “If I told my parents, and I was old enough, they’d probably have a quiet wedding ceremony for me at our temple.”

“Shit, your parents sound good all of a sudden.” Something that basic shouldn’t make Rei want to start crying again, but well, here he is, sniffling a little into Keito’s chest. “Yeah, that’s...that’s good. I’m glad. Hey, I know you said your parents would never let you be in a music club or hang out with someone like me, but if they didn’t know that stuff about me, do you think they’d hate me still?” 

Keito sighs, petting a little harder, because what else is he supposed to do when Rei is crying? “It isn’t that they wouldn’t like _you_. They just don’t see why I need to chase dreams that will never come true. They don’t care what you do with your life, they’re not your parents or your priests. As a friend of mine, they’d probably like you.”

“Go back to how cute they sounded about homos getting married,” Rei huffs, butting up against Keito’s hand. “No more about dead and dying dreams. Parents usually like me because they think I’m _going_ places, but I figured that doesn’t work with really devout Buddhists.” 

“No, they’d like you because you’re not loud and you have nice hair.” Keito gives a brief smile. “My father and my mother’s favorite things, respectively.” He hesitates for a moment, then continues, almost reluctantly, “You probably don’t want to, and it’s fine, I just thought I’d offer if you did...if you want to, the temple has an ancient tsukubai. We do ritual cleansings all the time, if...if you want. It helps, they say. With the spirit.”

Rei goes still for a moment, his breathing quiet and steady as he keeps his cheek pressed against Keito’s chest. “...That actually...yeah, that sounds pretty good,” he admits with a soft laugh. “Maybe. I’ll...I’ll think about it. You don’t have to like, tell anyone why you wanna do it, right? Sorry, I don’t know how this stuff works, I told you I’m a bad Buddhist.” 

“No, you don’t have to say anything.” Keito lets Rei’s hair curl around his fingers, that way it loves to do, almost as if it’s alive. “We assume everyone has a few things about them they’d like...washed away.”

“Mm. Yeah, count me in. Sometime this weekend, maybe?” Rei exhales a long breath, feeling his pounding head start to calm down again when the combination of being fed, being petted, being _safe_ and having everything bad in his system start to dilute really starts to kick in. “You’re gonna get me to join your temple for real at this rate.” 

Keito huffs out a little laugh, letting his hands wander again, over Rei’s shoulders and hair, as the first light of dawn starts to peek in through the window. God, is it really that late? “There could be worse fates. It isn’t a very demanding religion, compared to some others. They might want you to stop wearing your cross necklace, though.”

“It’s aesthetic,” Rei complains. “I have like, forty of them.” 

He briefly lifts his head, and cringes at the first bit of light starting to filter its way through. “Fuck. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for you to have to stay up all night,” he murmurs, slumping back down against Keito. “I’m really not going to class today; where’s the best place for me to be in here and not in your hair?” 

“Where we keep the bows,” Keito says hesitantly, “but there isn’t that much room in there, it’d feel like...well, like a coffin, I suppose, so you might actually like it. I have a blanket, if you want.”

“I will absolutely hide in a box under a blanket all day if I can.” 

“Then come with me, I’ll shut you in.” Keito tries not to yawn, hiding it in his sleeve when he can’t bite it back any longer, climbing stiffly to his feet. “I’ll shut you in. It opens from the inside, though, and I’ll cancel practice for the day. Combined with me wearing my uniform, that’ll make the team _really_ nervous.”

“That does sound like something you’d like.” Rei slowly hauls himself to his feet, wobbling for a second before he gets his noodle-legs underneath himself properly. He lurches a little, clinging to Keito’s arm, and butts his head against his shoulder from behind. “You’re definitely like, the best boyfriend, you know that?” 

“Given that I’ve done approximately nothing except give you used pajamas, I fail to see how I’m competent in any way,” Keito says dryly, tugging Rei towards the bow storage and opening the lid. “I wasn’t equipped for this, unfortunately. I’ll do better later, when I’ve had my tea.”

“Uh uh, you’re the best.” Rei mouths a kiss to the side of Keito’s neck before stepping around him and gingerly climbing in. It’s definitely a tight fit, but that’s _better_ , and Rei coils himself up into a tight ball. “Blanket me and you can be rid of me.” 

Keito grabs a rough, woven blanket from the cabinet, tossing it in after Rei and starting to pull the heavy lid shut. “You have your phone? You can text if you need to?”

Rei contently huddles his way underneath the blanket, and reaches out one handfrom the box to stop Keito. “Phone’s in my sweater, I threw it over there, somewhere?” His hand flutters. “And can you uh, burn my clothes or something? Or at least throw them away.” 

“I’ll cremate them, if you like.”

“...I mean, all right, is that a thing? Cremating clothes?” 

“I can cremate anything you want. I have access to the crematorium.” Keito’s eyes glint. “You’re dating a man with powers.”

Rei’s low, impressed whistle follows. “Okay, well, cremate them, I guess? But not my phone, gimme my phone and lock me up, Sexy Crematorium Man.” 

Keito digs through Rei’s pockets, finding a few ticket stubs, receipts, candy wrappers, loose change, and a phone. He tosses the phone and loose change onto Rei’s curled up form, then shuts him in, tossing the clothes in a bag to take to the kiln later. “Call me if you need me before the school day ends.”

He pauses, then adds, “Even if you just need me to be there.”

Rei wraps himself up in the blanket, pulling it over his head and snuggling in as he curls around his phone. “Will do,” he says, a disembodied voice from the box, and shuts his eyes as he adds far more quietly, “Thank you for taking care of me.” 

Just as quietly, Keito offers, “Thank you for trusting me to.” 

Then, before he can embarrass either of them further, he turns and walks out of the archery club room, locking it shut behind himself.


End file.
